Dead Man's Hand
by PrincessStayPuff
Summary: AU/AH Sookie has a new job at a night club and soon finds out exactly how much trouble a telepath can get into in the world of underground poker; while simultaneously becoming intrigued by a hot/blonde piece of man meat…I think we all know who.
1. DJ DBag

A/N: So, I'm back. I can't help it, SBB just got me addicted and I've been needing a fix; so I started this little story. No, sorry, this isn't a sequel to A Stackhouse Bed and Breakfast if that's what you're looking for. But I hope you still like it all the same.

Disclaimer: Charlaine Harris owns all rights to the Southern Vampire Series.

The fog machines were turned up way too high tonight. I don't know who told these people that it wasn't a cool club unless it had fog, but I would pay good money to have the man hunted down and intimately acquainted with the stupid machine. In all fairness, the fog is really just the cherry on this cheese sundae. The techno music and strobe lights weren't helping anything either. But the worst was probably the people. The stupid jackasses that got dressed up in their "hot" clothes and came to the club to get drunk and grind on each other; they were the worst. This is why I avoided the dance floor at all costs. I strictly kept my attentions on the booths and bar area that was less chaotic.

Unfortunately, it was also my job to make sure the DJ had a drink, should he need one. I honestly felt bad for the guy when I first met him, he had to stand there all night and watch clearly inebriated people dry hump all night. My pity for him lasted for about thirty seconds after meeting him. If the gold chain around his neck had not alerted me to his status of "douche", his mental ramblings had. He spent the whole introductory conversation trying to decide if my tits were real or not. Well, after that gem of a first impression, he was never going to know for sure. That had only been a week ago tonight.

I had not been very good at avoiding him, try as I might. He had a habit of waiting until I was conveniently close before deciding to tell one the waitresses to bring him a drink. So here I was, weaving my way through the crowd with his drink. I know we're not supposed to consume alcohol at work, but how am I supposed to respect any grown man who orders a fucking Shirley temple. It's not right.

I finally made my way behind the turntables and speakers to hand him his drink. I wish I had a sippy-cup to give it to him in. Oh well.

"Oh hey Sweets!" He had decided that was going to be his nickname for me. I'm pretty sure that he just couldn't remember my name. "I was starting to worry you'd forgotten about me." He gave me a wink before taking a sip and setting the drink down.

"Nope. I couldn't forget about you if I tried." I had tired. Not wanting to get into any conversation of length, I turned to head back to my tables. Apparently, he took this as an invitation to grab my ass. Had the slap two nights ago not been a clear indication that I did not like that? I reeled around to glare at him.

"For the love of god, Bill! I told you not to grab my ass. Stop it before I report you for sexual harassment." I was growling through my teeth and trying with all my might to not knee him in his sack. He, in turn, rolled his eyes and went back to his music.

I stepped down and went back to the bar to cool down before doing another round on my tables. Fate had other plans it seems. Pam was leaning again the bar waiting for me. I sighed and set my tray down to stand next to her and gave her a pleading look.

"I know what you're going to ask, and the answer is no." She smirked but kept her eyes scanning the room.

"Please? Just one good kick? You can dock my pay for any lawsuit or medical bills that would result." I smiled a little, knowing she would never agree, even if I was only joking…sort of.

"Sorry. I can't have my employees assaulting each other, it's bad for business." She knew the kind of guy that Bill was, because of this, she had only given me a slap on the wrist (and bought me a margarita after work) when I slapped him the other night. I guess it's too much to ask that she would turn the other cheek a second time.

"However, should you feel inspired to get on top of the bar and make out with another waitress, I believe that kind of stunt would be _good_ for business, and therefore, would gladly condone such behavior." She finally let her eyes find my face, when they did they were shining with amusement.

Pam was an unexpected bonus of having to get a new job. True, the scrap of material that passed as a uniform here was not my ideal. . However, desperate times call for desperate measures. I would wear a chicken costume to work, so long as I wasn't working within 10 miles of Sam. It was because of him that I had to hunt for jobs in the first place, I was a testament to the rule about not sleeping with your boss. Luckily for me, Pam had saved me from a job as any kind of mascot and given me a waitressing job at her club. I hadn't known her before coming in one afternoon and begging for a job, but she had become a fast friend and entertained me to no end. She was a seductress if there ever was one. Whether she was getting you to buy more drinks, stop fighting, or go home with her, there was no saying "no" to her.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I have had my eye on Felicia." I remarked just loud enough for said person to hear as she straightened up behind the bar. Pam's smile got wider. Felicia shot me a frightened expression before finding something to do at the other end of the bar. I giggled.

"Get back to work! I'm not paying you to stand here and fantasize about my bartender." Pam gave me her best 'boss look' and walked off. I did as she suggested and got back to my tables. The rest of the evening passed in a blur of beers and shots and before I realized it, I was locking up the front door as Felicia turned off the lights. Thank god we closed early on week nights. Usually it wasn't this bad, but apparently the local college had just finished finals and all the students were out celebrating.

Before leaving, I ducked into the bathroom and slipped out of my miniscule dress and into a pair of modest jeans and plain green v-neck tee. As much as I disliked the dress, I'm pretty sure my grandmother would loath it. She knew I worked in a bar, she just didn't know what the place was like; so I let her assume that it was just a regular redneck bar/pool hall like the last place. I hated lying to her, but really, it was more of a technically. I know, how coyote ugly of me?

By the time I got home, Gran was asleep and the house was dark. We lived in a cute little blue house that was in a fairly nice neighborhood in Shreveport. My grandparents had raised me and we had lived in a large farm house in a small town not too far away. However, when Grandpa Fin's health had started to fail, we'd moved closer to better doctors and into a newer house that required less upkeep. The older house had been given to my brother so it would stay in the family.

Amelia's car wasn't in the driveway, so I assumed she was still out. I wasn't quite ready to head to bed myself; I was still a little miffed about Bill and his advances. So I changed into something more comfortable and made my way into the kitchen for a midnight snack.

I've never had to go to anyone to talk to my problems before, but I figure that the same amount of therapy can be gained by dancing around in my pj's and singing along to Alanis Morissette while eating some half baked Ben and Jerry's. So that's exactly what I was doing. About halfway through the bite that was on the serving spoon I was eating with, I heard the front door close. Seconds later, Amelia walked into the kitchen. I didn't stop my ass shaking or gorging, she can just deal with it. By now she should be used to my little eccentricities. She was practically my sister, having basically spent all her childhood at my house. When she was growing up, her father had often had to go away on business. With her mother dead; she would come and live with us. Being an adopted member of the family, Amelia moved with us when we came here.

She just leaned against the door jam and wrapped the headphone cord around her mp3 player and smirked at me. She had just gotten back from her evening visit to the gym and was still disgustingly adorable and only lightly perspiring. I really need to get myself a new roommate that makes me feel better about myself.

"Aren't you going to tell me as to how much an acceptable serving size is?" I sneered at her as I took another bite of gooey brownie dough. Living with a health nut never really got to me, but I had never tried to blatantly rub it in her face before. I guess I was just walking on the wild side tonight.

"Technically, all ice cream has a serving size of one half cup." She walked over and sat down at the table, putting her feet up on the chair next to her. She kept that infuriating smirk on her face the whole time. "However, calories aren't absorbed by the female body for the first…month after a serious breakup, so eat as much as you want."

I knew there was a reason why Amelia was my best friend. I gave her a wide smile and took the seat across from her.

"Is that a fact?" I asked with a mouthful of my drug of choice.

"Yup. I read it somewhere." She leaned forward and dipped a finger into the half-empty carton and licked the small taste off before asking the inevitable.

"So, do you want to talk about it?" So predictable.

"I don't know what you mean. You said yourself this is an approved pastime after a breakup." I took another nibble off my spoon.

"True. But the ice cream hadn't made an appearance for a week until tonight. What happened? Is it still him, or did something else happen?" She lowered her legs to the floor so she could turn to look directly at me, trying to be supportive and give me all her attention. I'd gotten used to this technique in the past few weeks.

"No. Sam has nothing to do with it." I scowled down at my traitorous ice cream for getting me in this situation. "It was that stupid DJ, Bill, again." I looked up to her face to get her reaction. I was rewarded with a smile.

"Did you slap him again?" Her face was glowing with anticipation like I just told her that Santa was real.

"NO!"Apparently she saw right through my faked offense and arched her eyebrow. "Pam lectured me last time about not assaulting her staff. I didn't want to get fired so soon." I shrugged. Amelia just giggled.

"So what did he do?" She asked after she recovered her composure.

"I swear he hasn't heard a word I have said to him! I have made it perfectly clear that I do not want to 'get together' after work, ever. I have told him I'm not available. I have said that I don't want him to touch me, but somehow he interprets all that as 'please grab my ass whenever I walk away'. As if that's not enough, I get to listen to his stupid mental narrative about how great my tits are and how he'd like to…never mind." I slammed the lid onto the carton of deliciousness. I had a feeling I should save some for tomorrow night.

"Is he at least cute?" She had that smirk on her face again. I shot her a "that's not helping" look. "Fine, I'll go and let you get back to your little cope session. G'night!" She stood and made her way to her room.

I put the ice cream back in the freezer and followed her lead to head to my own room for the night. I sunk down into my covers and let all thoughts of Bill or Sam leave my mind. Going to sleep was always the best part of the day, in my opinion. It was so easy, I just let it take me.

Waking up was the hard part. My alarm was going off and I knew if I didn't get up at the usual time, I would just feel guilty later; but right now, going back to sleep sounded like a much better argument, and therefore also happened to be the one that won. Amelia, my least favorite person alive, was not so easily swayed and came into my room not five minutes after my alarm had gone off.

"Get up! You're going jogging with me before breakfast." She pulled the comforter back and smiled down at me.

"No. I'm not." I pulled the sheet over my head.

"Fine." Good girl. "But get up anyways. You'll feel better if you don't sleep in." she magicianed a cup of coffee from behind her back and started fanning the fragrant steam at my face. I pouted and took the cup while sitting up and throwing my legs over the side of the bed.

"Awesome. Now, don't forget, it's Friday, Jason is coming over for lunch." I'm sure I looked confused because she continued. "I left a note on the fridge last night. He called. He has something he wants to talk about. He didn't tell me what though." Great. My man-whore of a brother would be stopping by, no doubt to ask for money, as was the usual.

"Hey, just say no to whatever he wants and cook him an amazing lunch so he doesn't notice." She smiled on her way out of the room, already putting the ear-phones into her ears. Seconds later I heard the door slam. I contemplated laying back down. But apparently Amelia knew me too well. Just as I was leaning back into the soft mattress my cell phone buzzed on the night stand. I reached over to read the message I'd been sent…

"_Get the f up or I'll hide all the chocolate you have stashed while u'r at work."_

Bitch. I had a feeling that she didn't know all of my hiding places, so I could chance it. To be safe, I jumped up and headed to take a hot shower to wake me up.

A/N: Ok. There it is. The first chapter. Of a new story. How is it?

AHHHHHH!!! I don't know what I'm doing! I just have a vague outline. So if you stick with me, you might just get to laugh your ass off at how bad I can mess this up.

I could really use some reviews. Do you want me to continue or should I just give up and get a job at Starbucks so I have a more constructive use of my time?

Yes, I'm ranting and a little vulnerable and paranoid right now, its 1:55 am, I'm entitled. Deal with it.

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!!!!!**


	2. ManMeat and Greet

A/N: Ok. So I don't know who told you all that I don't have my shit together, because I totally do. You've been reading too much of my commentary. I know last night (or rather, very early this morning) I was less than sold on this story idea. But when I woke up to a ton of emails alerting me to reviews and story alerts, I kicked my ass into gear and am now totally on path and actually sorta know what the hell I'm doing. So thanks to everyone that helped motivate me. Keep reading and reviewing and you're more likely to get faster updates. Enjoy!

Disclamier: I do not own the Southern Vampire Series.

When I finally made my way into the kitchen, Gran was sitting at the counter pulling the husks off of ears of corn and tossing them into a pot in front of her. I refilled my cup of coffee and sat with her to help.

"Good morning, sweetheart." She smiled at me. "How was work last night?"

"Fine. The usual, nothing really eventful happened. How was your night? Did you sleep well?" Yes, let's talk about anything other than work, please.

"Oh my back is giving me trouble again. But Jason called yesterday evening! He said he'd be coming up today!" Gran was possibly to the only woman on earth (besides myself) who could love my brother unconditionally. He had disappointed us both before, but she had a soft spot for him that even I could not match. Therefore, her face was glowing as she relayed the news to me.

"Yeah, Amelia told me before she left. What are we making him?" I listened as she rattled off the menu she had planned. I knew that she would pull out all the stops for a meal for Jason. But he wouldn't be the only one to benefit. There was nothing I loved better than to watch Gran in the kitchen and to help where I could. So that is how I spent my afternoon, entranced by Gran's every movement and tasting the delicious concoctions to make sure they were perfect (and they always were). Too soon, the fried chicken was done and mashed potatoes were steaming on the counter. The corn was cooked and the peach cobbler would be coming out of the oven any minute. Amelia had only come home long enough to shower and change before leaving to spend the day with her boyfriend.

As if we planned it, Jason arrived the moment the table was set. He strode right though the front door without knocking and went straight up to Gran to pull her into a hug and kiss her cheek. It was cute that as much swagger as he usually walked around with; he was nothing but a momma's boy…or a grandmomma's boy. As soon as he had given her a proper hug, he turned to me.

"Sook! You and Gran are not goin' to believe what happened!" He was beaming at both of us and waited to see out reactions. I just raised my eyebrows while Gran beamed right back at him.

"I am in love!" He spread his arms out wide as if it was a big ta-da. I slumped into a chair and resolved to make it through this lunch without slapping him.

"Oh that's lovely Jason! I'm so happy you found someone special. How did you meet her?" Yes, I'm sure Gran was ecstatic. Of course, I had a feeling I knew what was coming and decided to refrain from the joy just yet. In the moments it had taken Gran to respond, Jason had noticed the feast that was laid out on the table. He had dropped into one of the chairs and began filling his plate before he realized that Gran had been speaking to him.

"OH! You mean Ging! Aw, that's a great story. Yesterday," I see we're starting out on a high note. "I was driving to Shreveport and I saw this hot little convertible pulled over with the chick just standing there looking at. So I figure I'll be a gentleman and see if can offer any assistance." He gave a big prideful grin at Gran to reassure her that she had raised him right. I just smiled and pretended that I didn't know that he only pulled over was because the girl was hot.

"She had a flat tire and didn't have a spare. She said she couldn't get a signal on her cell phone either. So I offered to take her into town so we could get a spare and I offered to help her fix it. One thing led to another and we ended up going out to lunch and spent the whole day together." And the night too, I'm sure. "I'm telling you guys, she's the one. I know it!" Sure she was. Fine, I won't spoil his fun.

"That's great Jason. What's she like?" I had the biggest most supportive-sister-smile on my face right now. I can't believe my high school drama teacher said I couldn't act, look at me now.

"She's perfect Sookie! She funny and beautiful and rich!" Ah, now I see why she is 'the one' and not just a one night stand. I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take. Gran, however, was on cloud nine; only slightly disappointed that the relationship was hardly the length of a day.

"Oh this is so great Jason. You'll have to invite her over for dinner some time, I want to meet her." Oh me too Gran, me too.

"Sure! We're goin out tonight, I'll ask her then." That seemed to be the end of show and tell and we all got down to eating and talking about the house in Bon Temps that my brother lived in and the weather. When we were all full, I cleaned up while Gran and Jason continued to talk at the table. I politely excused myself to get ready for work.

Jason was still there when I left, so I didn't feel as bad as usual about leaving Gran at home. The drive to work didn't take too long and pulled into the employee lot about 10 minutes before my shift started. I leaned back in my seat to rest for a few minutes before work. I'm pretty sure Amelia is psychic, or a witch or something, because the bitch always seems to know when I'm having a lazy moment. Before I could fully relax, my phone buzzed in my purse with a new message.

"_So what did big J want?" _I typed her a quick response.

"_nothing."_ I didn't have to wait long for her reply.

"_so what was up?"_

"_he's in love." _This time there was a good pause.

"_with what? Did he get a new truck?"_

"_no. he met a girl. she's rich."_

"_oh."_

"_yeah. I gotta go. work."_

I felt a little better knowing that Amelia was most likely on my side too. So with that, I walked through the back entrance and was determined to have a good night. I changed quickly into my work clothes and went out to make sure everything was set before we opened.

It was a Friday, so the crowd was as big as it gets. It seemed like hours before I could even stop to breath. Some stupid bachelorette party was sitting in my section, so I had spent a good amount of my evening so far refilling cosmos and trying with all my might to not stare at the impressive variety of dick-shaped paraphernalia. Apparently they liked me though, they gave me a necklace with dicks on it when I went by one time to clear away empty glasses.

About halfway through my shift, I was standing behind the bar and had slipped my feet out of my heels for a few moments of less intense pain. All the other waitresses were busy and Felicia was swamped. Pam had spent much of night in her office on the phone but had finally emerged to stand against the wall and speak to someone who currently had their back to me. I noticed that the dick covered girls were getting a little restless so I made my way over with another round and cleared away more empties.

I was almost back to the bar when someone slammed into me from behind. My tray tipped and the glasses I was carrying shattered on the floor. Super. And I was trying so hard to have a good night. I quickly located a dust pan and broom and got back to the disaster area before some bimbo in stilettos cut her big toe and sued Pam. I managed to clean up the glass without much trouble. As I was about to stand up, I looked up and my eyes locked on the most beautiful sight I had ever seen that was standing only a few feet away. The crowds had parted just so and the light was hitting the object of my new obsession in the most perfect way. I knew I should look away, that I should feel embarrassed for staring so long, but I couldn't. It was so muscular and tight and hidden so seductively by ordinary black jeans. I wanted to touch it. Just a little caress, nothing inappropriate. Oh who am I kidding, I wanted to do very bad things with it. It could not be helped, I had found the most magnificent ass on earth. I want.

I'm not sure how long I squatted there and mentally molested the stranger in front of me. But I was ripped out of my delusions when I noticed the ass move. It was turning, pivoting in my direction. Shit. It was only now that I let my eyes wonder above this man's waist, but I didn't focus too long on the specifics, because I realized it was his companion that had been staring at me, and had obviously alerted him to my odd behavior. Pam just stood there, with her arms crossed over her chest and a smug fucking smile on her face. I, on the other hand, looked like a deer in the headlights…and was holding a broom and broken glass.

"Sookie! Come here, I want you to meet someone." Little did she know that I was already intimately involved (in my mind) with her friend. But in order to avoid any embarrassment I could, I just walked over and joined her. Finally getting a good look at the man she had been talking to.

Oh wow. The rest of him was almost as good as his ass. Almost. He was tall and muscular, with broad shoulders and long blonde hair. His eyes were a dazzling sapphire blue. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he had magically come to life from the cover of some cheesy romance novel. I shall dub thee 'Mr. I-can't-believe-it's-not-Fabio'.

"This is Eric." That works too. "He's my cousin."

I had already known that Pam wasn't with him romantically, I knew she didn't swing that way. But this was good. I liked Pam. When me and Mr. I-can't-believe-it's-not-Fabio got married, we'd be related. Awesome.

"He's from Sweden." Thank you god. I didn't know it was possible to improve upon perfection, but you did it. Please god let him have a sexy accent that he can talk dirty to me with. I swear I'll go to church every Sunday if he does.

Dear god Sookie, say something!

"Oh! I love Swedish Fish!" Wow. Did I really just say that? Was that the only Swedish-related comment I could make? Yes, and yes. Fuck, he was glancing back a Pam with a look that clearly asked: "Do you really allow her out without a helmet?"

"Eric, this is Sookie, my new waitress." I don't think I could smile any brighter, or form an intelligent sentence, so I just stood there.

"It's nice to meet you." He held out his hand. He was giving me permission to touch him. I accept.

Before thinking I thrust my hand towards him, realizing a little too late that it would be impossible for me to shake his hand with a dustpan of broken glass in my own. Shit. He was looking at me with one of his eyebrows in a perfect arch. My brain (or something) was screaming at me to lick it. No, I doubt that would end well. Pam was giggling a little now and once again broke me out of my reverie.

"Oh! Shit! Sorry, I forgot, I was just cleaning up some broken glasses. I didn't realize I was still holding it." Shut the hell up before you can screw this up any more!

"That's ok. I'll take a rain check." Oh, ok, I will touch you sometime in the future. I can live with that.

Stop! This is getting out of hand. Get control of yourself. He is a man. You see several of them every day. You've even seen a few completely naked. This is not a big deal. Breath.

"Pam, I'm gonna…" He pointed to the door that was just past the DJ stand. Pam nodded her understanding and he walked away and disappeared through the door. Pam wasted no time after he was completely out of range.

"Do you need me to give you a few minutes?" She was still fucking smiling at me with that knowing look. Arrogant bitch.

"How badly did I just fuck that up?" I was positively mortified about what had just happened. I was pretty sure that that ass would stay hidden to me forever, the thought made me downright depressed.

"Don't worry about that. Most women aren't coherent when they first meet Eric, I bet he's used to it by now." She reached over to rub my upper arm in a comforting manner. "Besides, I'm about to make your evening."

I looked up at her and wrinkled my forehead in confusion. Not much could redeem this night. She must have felt my desperation because she stepped closer and put her arm around my shoulder.

"Well. He's here every weekend. Last Friday, he noticed you and asked me about you." She wiggled her eyebrows at me before turning serious again. "Now go throw that crap out and get some drinks for the ladies that are sucking on dick shaped lollipops. They obviously have not had enough." She gave my shoulder a final squeeze before walking off and leaving me to plan my redemption. I still had several hours to go tonight, I would make it my mission to speak to Eric and make a better impression. And if at all possible…give that ass of his a good pitch.

A/N: Wow! Technically that's two chapters in one day…even if I was sleeping for several hours in between. I feel really productive. On top of the chapters, I baked and decorated 4 dozen cupcakes today. I'm sorry that you guys can only benefit from the chapters. I honestly would give everyone who reviews a cupcake, but I think that would be like me paying you to read my crappy story…which doesn't fly with me. You should read my crappy story because you want to, not because of the promise of delicious treats.

I digress…

Keep the reviews coming. I wanna know what you thought of my chapter. I meant to have a lot more happen and the eric/sookie meeting was only going to be a brief thing…but it didn't happen and my fingers got tired of typing. Sorry.

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	3. Swooner Sightings and Felipe's Baby

**A/N: Well hello my pretties. I have a surprise for you. It's a little taste of Eric. I know, you love me. But don't get greedy! I hadn't even planned to write anything from his perspective, but I sat down and started writing and this is what happened. So savor it. Also, be gentle, I've never written Eric's perspective before, so I'm not sure how good it is. Next chapter we will be returning to Sookie and her night, because there is still plenty of night ahead. So relax and enjoy my little teaser. And of course, I don't own it, but I wish I did.**

_Last Time:_

"_Well. He's here every weekend. Last Friday, he noticed you and asked me about you." She wiggled her eyebrows at me before turning serious again. "Now go throw that crap out and get some drinks for the ladies that are sucking on dick shaped lollipops. They obviously have not had enough." She gave my shoulder a final squeeze before walking off and leaving me to plan my redemption. I still had several hours to go tonight, I would make it my mission to speak to Eric and make a better impression. And if at all possible…give that ass of his a good pinch._

------

EPOV

ONE WEEK EARLIER

I had to chuckle a little as I walked into the club. Pam had really outdone herself on this one. As kids, we had joked about opening a club together that would blow all the other clubs out of the water. We had agreed that New York or LA would be the best place. I guess Shreveport was the third choice we had never discussed. As much as this place did not match our childhood schemes, I was proud of her. She had set her mind to something and done it. I wish I could find the will to open up my own bar.

Through the flashing lights and smoke I could see my cousin talking to some petite blonde over by the bar. I stepped closer to alert Pam to my presence, and I might as well get a better look at the blonde; what can I say, I'm a guy. She was scribbling furiously at a pad in her hand and didn't notice when Pam shot me a quick smile in greeting and motioned that she'd only be a moment. She turned her attention back on the blonde, who I now noticed was cute (and stacked), but not my type; I'm sure it would please Pam that I had no intentions of fraternizing with her staff. Pam pointed over to the DJ and said something to blondie before dismissing her to go back to work.

I walked over to take a seat at the bar next to her.

"Hey! You're here early." She reached over to tug on a lock my hair that had fallen out of the band that was holding it back tonight. This had become a tradition between us: she would tell me I looked like Fabio and should cut my hair, I would respond politely with "fuck off". My hair was my mojo. I learned that quickly during a rebellious period in high school and never let it get shorter than shoulder length since.

"Yeah. Felipe wanted me to send you his appreciation." I took a swig of the beer that Pam had so thoughtfully procured for me. She stared at me for a long moment before raising her eyebrows in question.

"That's nice. Did he send anything more substantial?" I grudgingly reached into my jacket and pulled out the thick envelope and handed it to her.

"Poor baby. Did you really think I wouldn't ask and you could just walk right back out with it?" Apparently my face showed some form of confirmation. "Aw. That's cute." She rubbed my arm in a mock comforting motion. I'd never steal from her, I didn't need to, but it would have been nice to hold it hostage. I was always looking for a way to get a rise out of her.

The quiet between songs was interrupted by a booming laughter that could be heard over the speakers. Pam and I both turned to see the DJ in hysterics and the blonde walking away from the stage with a look that was somewhere between shock and fury. I looked over at Pam for explanation.

"New girl." Pam was kind enough to supply.

"She's cute. Did you hire her in the hopes of bedding the poor girl?" She made fun of my hair, I made fun of her preferences. We were even.

"Can you blame me?" She gave me a wicked smile before continuing. "She actually slept with her last boss, I can't help but hope it's a habit."

"Is she into…" I motioned up and down Pam's body to finish my question.

"No. Why? Are you into…"She mimicked me and motioned to the blonde who had her backs to us.

"She's cute. I doubt she's my type though." I took another swig of my drink.

"How so? She's adorable!" She looked at me like I had uttered some unforgiveable offence. Shit, I was going to have to explain.

"She's a swooner." Crap, I was probably just going to confuse her even more.

"What the fuck are you talking about, Fabio?" Again with the hair. Bitch.

"She looks like she's the kind of girl that freaks the fuck out when she meets a hot guy. For example, a guy like, I don't know…me." I pointed to myself and smirked at her.

"You are so fucking conceited." She rolled her eyes at me. "Enjoy your beer. I'm going back to work." She turned and walked away in the direction of her office. It was nice to know that I could still irritate the shit out of Pam. I would make an effort to do it more often. Meanwhile, I really did need to get to work.

I made my way through the Friday night crowd and passed through the door next to the stage area. My guess was that this was supposed to be a green room type area for whatever band was playing at the club. However, having a DJ eliminated the need and I had suggested it to Felipe to use when his last place had become…unavailable. Pam was reaping the benefits and Felipe finally had some fucking respect for me: win win.

When I walked through the door, everything was where it should be. The only thing that concerned me was an addition from last week. A person.

"Who the fuck are you?" I demanded of the man in front of me. He was wearing plain blue jeans and white tee-shirt and looked as if he had been substituting all of his meals for steroids. Fucking great.

"Hey calm down. I'm Quinn." He stuck his hand out for me to shake; I looked at it before narrowing my eyes back on his face.

"I guess what I should have said was: What the fuck are you doing in here?" Felipe was not going to be happy to know there are random people hanging out in his playroom when he's not here. He dropped his hand.

"Felipe sent me. I'm supposed to help you with whatever you need and check out the place before he gets here. He said there were some robberies recently, he wants to make sure all his bases are covered." What the fuck is going on?

"Fine. Don't touch anything." I started turning on the lights and unlocking the safe to retrieve the cards and chips. I didn't have to wait before the dealers showed up and began setting up for the game. About twenty minutes after that, the players began arriving. I collected the buy-in, $5,000, from each of the players and locked the cash in the safe that only I knew the code to. It was a modest little club. Only two tables, but the demand wasn't as great as in a larger city, so it worked. It was Felipe's baby. He set up the whole thing and scouted out players from what wealth there was to be found in Shreveport and the surrounding area. The players paid a monthly fee for accommodations and security. It was a healthy little enterprise.

This is how I spent my weekend. The game would continue until the chips were gone, however long that took. If we finished before noon tomorrow, we'd come back that night; if not, we'd be back next weekend. If Felipe won, I'd get a bonus. I had a good thing going, so I didn't complain about the odd hours or monotonous work.

Felipe arrived fashionably late, as usual. He made his grand entrance and Quinn stepped forward to take his jacket. Felipe stepped up to the first table and took a seat between two young women and immediately started to seduce them out of their chips and panties. Quinn took a protective stance behind Felipe. Now that he had arrived, I locked the door's deadbolt and made my rounds to make sure everything was in order before taking my place by the door. From here, I could watch whatever was on the TV in the background and keep an eye on everything. I settled in for the night and allowed my mind to zone out (it would be a while before anyone went broke and needed to be escorted out). My wandering mind betrayed me and went to thoughts of a cute, petite blonde. I was going to be a long fucking night.

**A/N: So there it is. A little bit of Eric and hopefully a lot of explanation that you'll want for future chapters. I hope you liked it! Let me know how it was with a…**

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	4. Scratches all down my back!

**A/N: New chapter! I bet you're excited. I know I am. But I'm a little sad too. I was gonna finish up the night with this chapter, but it got out of control. So this will officially be the longest night of Sookie's night. I hope she doesn't mind, I need her cooperation in future chapters. So, I guess I'll just tell you to enjoy and let me know what you think when you're done. **

**Disclaimer: Charlaine Harris owns all rights to the Southern Vampire Series.**

When half the bachelorette party was passed out at the table (and the other half was reenacting what could have been a missing scene from Wild Things on the dance floor) I felt I had earned the right to look at my watch for the first time in the evening. I figured that if I didn't look at my watch, time would seem to go faster. I was wrong, the night was only half over. Dear god, make it end. After the whole Eric debacle, I just wanted to go home, curl up in my bed, and die. My plan was not looking like it was going to happen any time soon. And it was about to get worse.

"HEY! SOOKS! I didn't know you worked here!" I reeled around to find the owner of the voice. Jason. He was just walking into the bar as I had been passing by. He was dressed up; well, as dressed up as Jason gets. His shirt was button down, which was practically unheard of. However, it wasn't tucked in and the top buttons were undone to reveal a good portion of his upper chest. His arm was hanging onto the waist a thin woman with obviously fake breasts. Her attention was on her phone in her hands.

"Jason! Wow, what are you doing here?" I'm not sure he heard me. He was scanning my scantily clad body and his jaw was hanging open in shock. Fuck. He better not tell Gran about this.

"I'm on a date. This is the girl I was telling you about!" He shook her waist a little to get her attention, or draw attention to here, I'm not sure. "Ginger, this is my sister, Sookie."

The woman finally raised her face from her phone and I saw her for the first time. I suppose she was an attractive woman, but it was hard to tell through all the makeup. Her hair was dyed platinum blond and there was a darker shade starting to show at the roots. She reached a talon tipped hand towards me.

"Pleasure to meet you, Sookie!" She said in nasally voice. She gave my face and body a quick scan before turning back to Jason. "Baby, we should get in there, we're already late."

"Oh! Ok." He said to her and then gave me a quick good-bye and promised to call soon. I was a little confused as I watched them weave through the dancers and into the door that I had seen Eric go through earlier. I'd have to ask Pam what was back there. Before I could ponder it too much I heard someone calling for a waitress and went back to see to my tables.

Since I had given up and was now checking my watch at five minute intervals, I knew it had been an hour since I had talked to Jason when Felicia waved me over to the bar. My tables were quite and by this time most people were socially lubricated enough to go to the dance floor or were just content to sit and talk with their companions. When I made it back to the bar, Felicia hugged me and started right in.

"Sookie! I haven't had a break all night and I'm about to pee my pants. Can you cover bar for fifteen minutes? It's slowed down pretty good, it shouldn't be any trouble." I nodded my consent and she shot off into the back before I could even say one word.

She was right. Almost everybody was slowly nursing the drinks they already had and I got to breathe a little and relax. It can get pretty exhausting to be a bar full of buzzing minds that are all thinking about sex. If you think a drunk person's speech was bad, you can't imagine what their mind is like. A few minutes had passed when some guy walked up to the bar to order. He didn't seem like the club type, he wearing a regular tee and jeans. But his head caught my attention, he'd shaved it bald, it was kind of cute and weird at the same time. But overall, he was hot.

"Hey what can I get for you?" I gave him a big smile and he looked up and smirked at me. He stepped closer to the bar to lean his forearms on the counter. He held a small piece of paper in his hand and looked down to consult it as he answered me.

"I'll take two buds, two cokes, a jack and coke, a martini, and…" He trailed off and brought one hand up to rub over his face.

"What? Is something wrong?" He looked up at me and sighed before smirking again.

"Nah, I also need a fucking sex on the beach." He chuckled a little. I couldn't help it, I giggled too as I started to fix his drinks. I assembled them all on a tray and looked back up to find him staring intently at me with a small smile on his lips.

"You need help?" I asked to get his attention.

"Oh! No, I got it." He said as he paid. He picked up the tray and I watched as he too made his way through the grinding and gyrating to the door next to the stage. He, however, knocked and waited for the door to open. I could see just enough to tell that it was lit slightly brighter than the rest of the club and, to my confusion and astonishment, it was Eric who opened the door to admit the man and closed it after he entered. What the fuck was going on here?

I didn't have long to wait before Pam came out from the back and came behind the bar to get a soda. I leaned against the bar and stared at her with my eyebrows raised. Understanding the universal sign for 'we need to talk', she set the drink down and looked at me, waiting for me to start.

"What is going on in the room behind the stage?" I narrowed my eyes at her, hoping she wouldn't just blow me off. She sighed and diverted her eyes to the floor for a moment before looking back at me.

"As far as you need to know, it's a private party that books the room every weekend; just some friends getting together." Yeah, and monkeys are about to fly out of my butt. It is times like these when I actually like being a telepath. I concentrated for a few moments to try and hear anything from Pam. I had never noticed it before, but Pam wasn't a particularly strong broadcaster. All I could get was a few flashes of a couple faces. One was Eric, I recognized him in an instant. The other wasn't familiar. But he had dark hair and a goatee. He looked slightly older, maybe in his late thirties, and was very attractive. Alas, it was all I got and I had to bring my attention back to the physical world before Pam noticed my distant thoughts.

"Uh huh. Sure." She stepped a little closer when I said this.

"Hey, they're not drinking the blood of babies or virgins, so you don't need to worry about it. Let it go." It seems I need to put on my private investigating hat. Fine, I'll get to the bottom of it eventually.

"Ok. So who was the hunk with the shaved head?" It always helps to know who the players are when trying to figure out the game. I was disappointed when I saw honest confusion on her face.

"I have no clue. Sorry. Was he cute?" She winked at me. And just like that, we were back to be a couple of friends joking with each other.

"Actually, yeah. Since I'm pretty sure I royally screwed things with your cousin, I might just see if I can get to know him a little better." It wasn't too far from the truth, but I really didn't want to try and start a relationship right now.

"Oo la la. What does he look like, besides the shaved head." She had a silly grin on her face now and I knew she was fishing for something to tease me with…I'll be generous.

"He was real tan and was just handsome overall. But it was his body that got me. He was so buff, I bet he could lift you and me both over his head. I love that in a man." Hey, if it would make her forget my interest in that room, I'd give her anything she wanted.

"Oh. So you're one of those girls who can't resist tickets to the gun show?" She had a devilish little glint in her eye. God I hope she wasn't going to try and plan something. I was saved from having to answer when Felicia came back from her break.

"Thanks girl! You're a lifesaver! You can take your break now if you want. I'll keep an eye on your tables." She smiled at me and went back to start taking orders. I looked over at Pam for permission and she nodded her head in approval as well. So I took off.

One and a half minutes later I was sitting on the couch in Pam's office, had Amelia on the phone and had already recounted my earlier run in with Mr. Perfect.

"Relax sweety. You didn't rip open your shirt or start humping his leg. From how you describe this guy, that is a feat all by itself." She was trying so hard to calm me down. Too bad it wasn't working.

"You weren't there Lia! He was looking at me like I was crazy." Which, I might have been at the time.

"Look at it this way, the first impression sucked, but now…all you can do is improve. Just blow him out of the fucking water next time. And before you yell at me…I know for a fact you can do that, if you just breathe and be yourself instead of the horny sixteen year old that you let escape earlier. Reign that bitch in!" I heard her giggle on the other end and half-heartedly joined in.

"Amelia, I love you…but I think you're wrong. I really don't think that I'll be able to win this guys respect after earlier." I knew I sounded deflated to her, but I didn't want to play along and get false hope.

"Listen you self-pitying bitch: Get your ass up, go fix your makeup, put on your big-girl panties, and go out there and make it though the rest of the night with some dignity. Do you understand?" I hated her and loved her at the same time. Gran had taught this girl well; only she could have had the same effect even if the wording was not the same.

"Okay. I will. Honest. I better go. I'll see you when I get home." I knew my voice sounded stronger so she said her good-byes and let me go. I did as I was told and went to wash my face and fix my eye makeup, and I did look better. Knowing that just made me feel even stronger and I gave myself a good pep talk before exiting the bathroom and go back to the front of the bar. After all, it was only about an hour until closing.

My pep talk didn't prepare me for this. Apparently hell had broken lose while I was having my pity party. Felicia was cleaning up broken glass while Pam and Maxwell, the bouncer, were talking to two guys who were both black and blue with bloody noses. While this was certainly interesting, I couldn't bring myself to look away from the dance floor once I had looked over. All the bachelorettes, in their dick-covered glory, had made it to the dance floor and were swarming around their poor victim. This would have been that bad had the victim been just another drunk who would have happily played along. Unfortunately, Eric was not too happy to be grabbed by a group of horny women with no inhibitions. In fact, he was valiantly fighting for his freedom, but it wasn't working; he was outnumbered and they weren't feeling any pain and this point in the evening.

I'm not normally an indecisive person, but the speed with which I formed my plan had to have been a record. I felt a primal need to make those women stop touching him like that. They had no right. He was mine…or would be in the future. I knew it, and I had to protect what was mine. So I made my way up to the stage and quickly got Bill's attention.

"I need a favor. I want to request a song." I rushed though my words and was greeted by a slow smirk that quickly stretched from one of his ears to the other.

"What do you wanna trade for it?" He had stepped closer and was now well within my personal bubble. I had to remind myself that if I punched him, he would most likely not agree to help me save Eric. Damn it.

"I'll pretend to not notice it when you grab my ass while I'm walking away." I rolled my eyes at the ridiculousness of actually trading dignity for a song. I was shocked when he didn't respond right away.

"Is this just for tonight, or can I do it from now on?" Is he serious? I don't have time for negotiations; I knew this, so I gave him what he wanted.

"From now on! Just play the god damn song!" His smile somehow got bigger and started fading out the current song to replace it with the one I had requested. I made my way off the stage and to the dance floor, wincing slightly at Bill's momentary hold on my ass-cheek. I better not have a bruise.

I got into position just as the opening line range out:

"_I come home in the morning light. My mother says when you gonna live your life right."_

Ow. Squeals. Lots of squeals. But it was worth it, because it worked like a charm. The bachelorettes lost their interest in Eric and grabbed a hold of each other to sing along and jump up and down. That was my cue. I rushed in between the women and grabbed onto Eric's shirt. I kept going, holding onto him the hold time, until I'd made it through the throng of people and to a quiet spot next to the wall.

He had his back against the wall and I was between him and the dancers, facing him. He had his eyes closed and seemed to be cowering a little. What did they do to him? He finally opened his eyes and looked and me for a second before flinching and trying to absorb himself into the wall.

"Hey…are you ok?" I was seriously worried now. This was not the confident Fabio I had met a few hours ago.

"You're one of them aren't you?" He was staring at me with trepidation. What the fuck was he talking about?

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I kind of just wanted to literally slap him out of it, I knew that it must have been traumatizing, but this shit is pathetic. He didn't answer me, he just pointed to my chest. I looked down to see what he was staring at. Oh shit. The penis necklace that the bachelorettes had given me earlier was still around my neck and had fallen out of my top, where I had stuffed it earlier.

"Oh, no. They gave that too me earlier." I took off the offending object and stuffed it into my pocket. There was no way I was just going to throw something like that away, Amelia would never forgive me. He visibly relaxed and stood straighter, turning back into the confident hottie I'd grown fond of.

"Thank god. Those women were animals. Thanks for getting me out of there." He looked like he was about to say something else when the chorus kicked in again with a vengeance. We both cowered a little and I pointed to the hallway that led to the bathrooms and Pam's office. He nodded and I went first, with him following behind. When we were in the hallway and the noise level was much more acceptable, I turned to find him with one hand behind his back and a wince on his face.

"You ok?" I asked again. He paused before answering.

"Um…this may sound weird…but would you look at my back?" YES! It's my new favorite pastime, and he was ASKING me to do it. Yes, yes, yes. Wait…play it off. Be cool.

"Umm…sure." I nodded a little and he turned to grant me a view that every other Kodak moment would envy. And apparently the view had once again made me stupid, so I said the first thing that came to mind.

"Looks great to me." His back shook with laughter and he peeked over his shoulder to look at me.

"No, I mean, my skin…can you lift up my shirt? My back really hurts and I don't know why." He turned to face forward again as my face turned a new shade of embarrassed. I tentatively lifted the hem of his shirt to look at his back. Nothing so far, so I lifted a little higher. Holy fuck.

"Oh shit!" My mental filters still weren't working.

"What! What is it!" His voice was higher and I could tell he was worried. I wanted to calm him down so he wouldn't freak out; but I'm not sure if I had the heart to tell this poor guy he had four distinct claw marks marring his beautiful back.

"Um. You've got a scratch. It's nothing. I'm sure it'll be fine." In truth, they looked fucking gruesome. I don't know what went on in the mob, but if he didn't notice it when it happened…I was officially the coolest person for saving him. Bitch owed me.

"A scratch? If feels like someone took a cheese grater to my back." He looked back over his shoulder at me again with his eyebrows raised. He was so cute.

"Fine. You have a few scratches. But I don't recall any of the women foaming at the mouth, so I think you'll live." Damn, and I had hoped to be leaving scratches on his back, it was so disappointing to hear that he didn't like them.

"Can't you do something about it? Would a band-aid help?" No. They don't make them that big. But I'd play along if it meant that I could spend more time with him.

"Sure. Pam's got a first-aid kit in her office." I let his shirt fall back into place and grabbed his hand without even thinking about it. I led him to Pam's office and shut the door, wondering if I had time to locate a slutty nurse's outfit to set the scene. No, probably not.

**A/N: Jesus Carpal Tunnel Christ. That was a long fucking chapter. Believe it or not, I wrote this before realizing that tonight's episode of True Blood is titled "Scratches". But I think it's fitting that I post this today. It's like…harmony or some shit. I feel good about it. So I hope you liked it.**

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	5. Compromised

**A/N: Oh how I wish Eric was real and looked at me the way he looked at Sookie's back last night. But alas, he is not...and I am not a bloody laceration. Dang it. Ok, here's a new chapter. I'm sorry to those of you who thought that Sookie should have made a real effort to locate a nurse's uniform. But I had a good day today, so I don't feel that bad about it. Deal with it. SOOOOO….read my chapter anyways and let me know if you think I made the right decision. I'll respect your criticism. Hell…if you want it bad enough I might try and re-write it with the outfit and post it as an outtake. Then again maybe not…you'll never know if you don't review.**

**Disclaimer: Charlaine Harris owns all rights to the Southern Vampire Mystery Series.**

Eric was sitting side ways on the couch while I was sitting on the arm in order to have a better view of his injuries. My hands were shaking a little as they dabbed as his scratches with antibacterial ointment. My mind was racing between trying to absorb every detail of his bare skin and wondering why the hell this man was having this kind of an effect on me. I had nearly passed out when he'd take his shirt off so I could get to his back. Why? He was a guy. Yes, he was very attractive, but I'd been with attractive men before, but none of then turned me into goo like this one did.

"So how long have you been working here?" His voice caught me off guard and I dropped the cotton swab I was working with. I watched in horror as it fell down the back of his pants that were bunched open at the waist as he hunched over. I had already admired this view as well; if not mourned the fact that so little was visible. It didn't fall very far, just resting inside the small opening between the skin and material. Dare I reach for it? I didn't have time to act before his own arm reached around and retrieved it, then held it out to me.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" I snatched it out of his hands and threw it away to get a new one to use. I was nothing if not a stickler about germs.

"Don't worry about it. The medicine's just a little cold." He chuckled a little. "So, are you going to answer me?" What? Had he asked me something? OH!

"Oh, um, a little over a week now."

"Do you like it?" Is he making conversation with me? Is he really talking to me?

"Well, work is work. But I like Pam, she makes me laugh." It was true, she was the best part of this job. I laughed a little thinking about her antics that I'd witnessed since being here. Eric seemed to like my response too, his back was shaking with quiet laughter.

"Yeah, she's quite a character." He paused for a moment. "We've been close our whole lives. My family used to ship me off to live with her and her family here in the states during the summers." He stopped. I didn't want him to. I wanted to hear more. I wanted to hear about their family and what Pam was like as a kid. What his favorite memory was. Most of all, I wanted to hear his deep voice. I wanted to feel the rumble of his laughter on his back again. I wanted more of him in general.

This was ridiculous. I was being ridiculous. I should be apologizing to my entire gender for the way I had acted this evening. As I placed a few band-aids across the worst parts of the injury, I steeled my resolve to maintain my cool and not let this guy get the best of me anymore.

"You're done." And so am I. My resolve might have held had he not looked back over his shoulder to smile at me.

"Great. Thanks." He tried to stand up, but something when wrong and he lost his balance before even making it off the couch. He reached back for something to grab and his hand landed on my thigh, apparently it wasn't a very good support and he fell back to the couch anyways.

"My fucking leg's asleep!"He growled. I wasn't paying much attention though. As if our current position wasn't bad enough, the pressure he had put on my leg had thrown me off balance, in order to keep myself from falling, I reached forward to grab his shoulder. Instead, my hand flew right past it and landed on his peck and forced him to lean further back between my legs. It was a pretty compromising position we had fallen into, so of course, this was when Pam walked in.

We were both facing the door and saw her as she abruptly stopped and looked startled. This look quickly disappeared into a wide grin as she crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. I have no clue what Eric's face looked like, but I had dropped my jaw and let my eyes go wide. My face was probably bright red as well. Surprisingly, all I could do was be thankful that I had not had the time to locate the nurse's outfit. Things were bad enough as is.

"You know," She said slowing, "I have a strict policy about no frisky behavior on my couch… unless I'm a member of it." She winked at me. Apparently that was enough for Eric because he removed his hand from my thigh and shot off the couch. I grabbed onto the back of the sofa to gain my own balance before standing up.

"Pam, stop. Sookie was just helping me out." He reached for his shirt and quickly brought it over his head as he spoke.

"Well, I certainly hope you reciprocated, because you were raised better than that." Her face betrayed no trace of humor as she said this, but her eyes were dancing with it. I was sure I would never here the end of it.

"Enough Pam. She was actually fixing up my back. Some of your patrons decided to attack me. You're lucky I'm not suing you." He said as he walked past her and back into the bar. He gave me a quick smile before disappearing completely. I couldn't decide if I should be grateful that he had left and spared me more embarrassment, or angry that he had left me in alone with Pam after that incident.

" Forgive me, but I feel I should tell you that you may have been a little to forward. Didn't your mother ever tell you that men like the chase? Or at least the little metaphor about cows and free milk." I despised him.

"Pam…" I raised my hands in surrender or defense, whichever should be needed, "I was just cleaning up some scratches on his back, he fell when he tried to stand up, and then you wanted in. I swear, I wasn't being inappropriate in your office."

"Relax. I couldn't care less what you and Eric were doing; he's my cousin, not my lover." She smiled at me again. "Besides, I like you Sookie. I like you a lot better than any of the other women that Eric has seen, so the closer you too are, the better." She shrugged as she walked over and took a seat at her desk. I was trying really hard not to think about what she was saying.

"However, your absence from the bar on such a busy night was an inconvenience." She looked up from her work to look at me. "But I'll let it slide." She winked again. I'd take that as my dismissal.

I walked back to the bar to find that Eric had disappeared; whether he had gone home or back to the mysterious room, I had no clue. So I let my mind shut down as I started to clean up my tables and helped Felicia close up. By the time I got home, I was determined to end this day and not have to think about everything that had happened until tomorrow. I walked inside to find Amelia on the couch watching TV and reading some trashy magazine. When she saw me, she set it down and sat up. I could see that she was about to start in with the questions so I put up my hand to tell her to let me be. I felt bad, but I couldn't let today drag on anymore, who knows what would have happened. So I walked past her and into my room with no plans of emerging until morning.

------

My alarm went off at the usual time. I slapped it off my bedside table and went back to sleep. When I finally woke up, I knew something was wrong. I was allowed to sleep in. That was not right. Amelia should not have let that happen. Crap. I got out of bed and went to the kitchen; if you want information in my house, you go to the kitchen, someone is guaranteed to be there and ready to dish.

Gran was sipping coffee and reading the newspaper. Obviously nothing was terribly wrong, so I got my own coffee and joined her.

"Where's Amelia?" I asked after a few sips and we exchanged our polite good-morning's.

"Tray surprised her with flowers this morning. It's their anniversary and he had a whole day planned, so she left with him." Gran was beaming and you could hear the excitement in her voice.

"AWWW!" I couldn't help it. Tray was officially the best boyfriend in the world. Amelia was a lucky girl. As soon as I got over the initial shock of the act, I realized that I probably wouldn't see Amelia until tomorrow. Now I felt guilty that I had blown her off last night. I'd make it up to her.

"Do you have any plans today, Gran?" If I can't spend time with Amelia maybe I can make up some overdue quality time with Gran.

"Oh yes!" Gran had set the paper aside now and was even more excited than when she'd talked about Amelia and Tray. "There is a civil war reenactment a few towns over and Maxine and I are going to go! Oh I can't wait to tell the club about it!" Ah, that explains it. Gran was a member of the Decedents of the Glorious Dead, a club that met to pay homage to the war of northern aggression.

"Oh, well, that sounds exciting. I hope you have fun." I really did. Even if I wouldn't be spending the day with her, she deserved to have a good time; she didn't get out as often anymore.

As she had planned, Maxine picked Gran up and they left not long after I had talked with her. I had the house to myself and no real errands to run. I had to work tonight, but not for several hours. This meant I could sunbathe. It was a rare occasion that I could do it without feel like I was neglecting something else, but today I would indulge.

Having made my decision, I got ready at vampire speed. Slipping on my bikini and sandals and grabbing my towel in a blur. I was outside and singing along to pop music before Gran's half-full coffee cup was even cool.

It was perfect too. Not a single cloud in the sky. A soft breeze would blow just often enough to cool my skin from the rays of the sun, but not make me cold. It was bliss. As I lay there, I voluntarily though of Eric. Pam had said that he came in every weekend. Did that mean he would be in tonight? How had I not noticed him last weekend? Would it be awkward to see him again after the events in Pam's office? I had too many question and not enough answers. But I made myself believe that I would not be embarrassed when I saw him again; even if my dreams had been about touching his chest and him holding my thigh. Pam's words about being too forward came back to me. I wouldn't try to pursue him; that would make it too easy for him. I trusted that Pam knew Eric and what would get to him, so it was my plan to follow her advice. I would be aloof.

------

He wasn't fucking there. As much as I'd hate to admit it, I had dressed up a little tonight. I had put more effort into my hair and make-up. I had meticulously shaved my legs so as not to miss a single hair. I had worn prettier lingerie that made me feel sexy and more confident. And I hadn't even seen him. All night I had been hoping to catch a glimpse of him. I'd catch myself staring at the door next to the stage. Pam had even caught me staring at the door, and I'm pretty sure she knew what I was thinking because she had walked off laughing to herself. She better not tell him.

To say the least, I was not in a good mood when I got home. I was disappointed that I hadn't seen him. I was anxious about when I finally would. I was curious where he had been. I was suspicious of the events that took place behind that door. I was ashamed that I had dressed up for a man a barely knew. I was worried about Pam and her big mouth. I was disgusted with myself that I had let this man affect my moods. But I was mostly sad, because if he wasn't there (when Pam specifically said he came in on the weekends), it was entirely possible that he simply didn't want to see me.

I had hoped that I had redeemed myself when I had saved him from the mobbing bitches. He had talked to me and laughed with me…and touched my thigh. I had hoped he'd forgotten about my embarrassing displaying with the broken glass and my obvious ogling of his ass. Maybe he hadn't. Maybe his back just really hurt and he'd taken what help he could get. It was killing me to not know what he was thinking. The most absurd part of my whole predicament was that I had the means to find out exactly what he was thinking. It hadn't occurred to me to use my gift when I had been so close to him, it was as if his hotness was a defense mechanism specifically built to deter telepaths. It would make us too dumb with lust to be a threat. It was working.

So I went to bed frustrated and angry at his hotness. But loving it all the same.

------

"Wake-up little chickadee!" My eyes shot open to the beautiful face of one of my best friends. It was entirely too close to my face for comfort and entirely too perky for this hour.

"No. More sleep." I pulled the pillow over my head.

"You can't. It's Sunday. It's tradition!" I could fight it, but there was no point in arguing with Claudine. I sat up to find Amelia just behind her. Both were wearing frilly dresses and had their hair tied back in bows.

"Stupid traditions." I grumbled as I made my way to the shower.

**A/N: I sunbathed today. It made me think of Sookie. I was also in kinda a playful mood and I think it may have come through a little in my writing. You tell me. So, I'm still feeling inspired to write, but I wanted to end this chapter and take a break. But if I come back to bunch of reviews telling me how much my readers adore me and my story and how pretty and wonderful I am, I may just get another chapter out tonight or by the wee hours of tomorrow morning. So…get on it. Flattery will get you everywhere.**

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	6. Sundays and Dairy Products

**A/N: So, it's not very long, sorry. But we'll get back to the club soon and I'm also considering another Eric POV…I KNOW! I told you I wasn't going to do it again! But aren't you wonder what he's thinking? I am. Oh well, I guess we'll all just have to wait and see if Eric is willing to share or if he's going to play the sexy/mysterious card. In the meantime, enjoy some girl time.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Southern Vampire Mystery Series.**

Since we were little girls, Gran had taken Amelia and me out to lunch after church on Sunday afternoons. When Claudine had moved to town during elementary school, Amelia and I had claimed her as our friend and included her in the tradition. When we were old enough to drive ourselves, Gran no longer joined us. She had claimed that it would be good to have girl time without your grandmother supervising, I had whole-heartedly agreed. At some point in the early years, we had decided to maintain a strict dress code for our Sunday afternoons. As children, we had gone in our Sunday best dresses and done our hair in cute curls and bows, it was this style that had stuck.

So this is how I ended up in a flowery pink dress with a yellow ribbon in my hair and white pumps on my feet. The other girls were dressed similarly and we were all sitting in the outdoor café sipping our tea with gloved hands. Stupid traditions. Amelia abruptly set down her tea and looked at Claudine, who joined her as they both turned to stare expectantly at me.

"Spill." Amelia enunciated.

"What?" You'll have to excuse me, I was still waking up and my mind was wondering why I still partook in this silly tradition of ours.

"I already told her what you told me on the phone the other night. But I want to know what happened after that! You came home in a bad mood. Did something else go wrong?" Amelia was leaning in towards me now, cornering me against the wall of the café. I sighed. There was no getting out of it.

"Yes." I took another sip so I had time to organize my thoughts. "I had to save him from a pack of wild bachelorettes. I performed first-aid on his back, which had been scratched by said bachelorettes. Pam walked into the office to find him with his shirt off and me groping his chest. She proceeded to make a few embarrassing comments and told me that Eric wouldn't buy my cow if I was giving him my milk for free and that I should let him chase me." They both stared at me for a few seconds with identical looks of confusion and surprise. "That's about it." I lamely finished.

Amelia seemed to get her wits about her first.

"He took his shirt completely off? How did he look?" Ok…forget about my earlier "wits" comment.

"Beautiful. Was that really the only part of my story you heard?" I leaned down to rest my head on the table. Screw manners. It was Claudine who spoke up next.

"I like Pam, but I don't think you should take her advice. Don't try and play games." I looked up at her as she continued. "You know, Sookie, you've never been one to fall head over heels for someone like this before. When it comes to men, you've always been able to look at the situation reasonably. Obviously you're having some trouble here. And maybe that's a good thing. A good sign." She took a sip of her tea. Like hell I'd let her finish like that. I made a motion for her to keep going

"Well, sure, you've been cautious with men in the past…but it's never really worked out. Maybe this could end differently." She shrugged a little and picked up her tea again.

"I don't understand. Why do you think I should give away my milk for free?" I couldn't understand why she was telling me this. But it wasn't Claudine who answered, it was Amelia.

"I get totally get what she's saying. Think about it Sook. Ever since high school you've tried to stay on some strict course that you set for yourself with men. We both watched as you basically fought against nature to try to be with Calvin. It was obvious that you didn't love him, but you still tried to make it work because you knew he was a good guy and he loved you. With Sam," she sent me an apologetic look when I cringed a little at his name, "I think you only started the relationship because you felt like you should, like you owed him or something, for being so nice to you and helping you out so much."Amelia stopped for a few seconds to let me think about what she'd said. I sunk down into my chair a little bit. I couldn't deny what they were saying. I had always known that I had never really loved Sam or Calvin. I had always figured that love would eventually develop if I had stayed with either of them, in the end, they had both broken it off with me.

"So I guess what we're saying is…don't think about it so much. Don't try and calculate everything out. If we're gonna stick with the metaphor: don't try and haggle with him about prices or start erecting a barn to keep it in. Just enjoy how pretty Eric's pasture is while you're in it." Amelia looked pretty proud of herself right now, even if it didn't completely make sense.

"If it's going to happen, just let it happen." Claudine added with a smile. "And don't try to read his mind, don't let his thoughts interfere with what you do." Her smile turned into a hard line as she lectured me, then immediately went back to a smile as she looked up at the sky. We sat in silence as our salads and sandwiches were brought out and we began to eat. It was nice to just sit in the company of my good friends.

However, as quiet as the table was, my mind was buzzing; and not with the thoughts of others. I realized that my friends new me better than I knew myself. But I couldn't imagine how I was going to play it cool and "let it happen" when Eric was in the room. Before, I had totally freaked out. I had started shaking. I had spent all of yesterday thinking about him.

"Sookie?" Claudine was looking at me with a worried expression on her face. I looked up at her, giving her permission to continue. "You've stopped eating." Crap. I hadn't even noticed.

"It's just, every time I'm around him I tell myself I'm going to play it cool and it doesn't happen. He turns me into a pile of nerves." I set my fork down and leaned back.

"Sookie," Claudine reached over to take my hand, "my guess is that you don't think you're good enough and you're afraid of rejection." Well, I guess today is 'let's-analyze-Sookie' day. I rolled my eyes at her.

"I agree. Sookie, you are beautiful and smart and fun and perfect. So stop thinking he won't like you, and stop freaking out." Amelia said as she stuffed a forkful of lettuce into her mouth. "Besides, if you keep shaking, all your milk will turn into butter and he won't want your cow anymore." She finished through a mouthful of food. Claudine and I looked at each other before starting to laugh at how ridiculous our friend was. Amelia joined in and we spent the next fifteen minutes just joking around and laughing at each other. I told them all about Jason and his big announcement. Claudine got us caught up on her life and told us how her brother was doing. Amelia shared all the romantic details about her and Tray's anniversary. By the time we each had a slice of cheesecake in front of us, I was pretty sure that we were done with any talk about Eric, which I was grateful for. So I was supremely disappointed when Amelia spoke up again.

"I do have one more question about Eric though." Her look pleaded with me to let her continue. I nodded my assent.

"I was wondering…does Eric do bachelorette parties?" I giggled a little remembering him with the drunken women.

"No, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why?" I couldn't image what had made her think about that.

"That's too bad. I guess you guys are going to have to find someone else." With that she removed the glove from her left hand and held it up so Claudine and I could see the modest engagement ring on her finger. The squealing and jumping and hugging that ensued created quite the scene at the little café; we were eventually asked to leave by the owner.

**A/N: Ok, not a lot of action, I know. But I didn't want Sookie to avoid her girls because she was all angsty with Eric and his crap. So I gave them a Sunday. **

**Second order of business: I really want to thank all the people out there that are reading and reviewing and being totally supportive. So…**

**Sluggysmom**

**Ds862**

**Ericsmine**

**Pbarker61**

**Gallathea**

**Murgatroid-98**

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**Uvgottobekidding**

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**And everyone else who is reading and reviewing…**

**Thank you thank you thank you!!! You all deserve a cupcake.**


	7. No One Puts Sookie in a Corner

**A/N: There are two reasons why I am posting a second chapter today. The first is because ds862 is stuck in bed with a broken collarbone and needs to be entertained. So this chapter is dedicated to you and your recovery. The second reason is because you guys are showing me the love so I thought I'd show it right back. Today alone, I've had almost 700 hits on my stories. For me…that's just...WOW. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. So I give you a chapter as a thank you. I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Southern Vampire Mystery Series.**

Sunday had been just what I needed. I got to relax with two of my favorite people on earth and eat cheesecake. Oh, and I'm pretty sure it settled my nerves about Eric too. So on Monday, it was back to work as usual. I waited tables, I cleared glasses, I chatted with Felicia, I joked with Pam, my ass was squeezed by Bill, and I didn't once look for Eric. It was nice to be back to normal.

That was pretty much how the entire week went. With the exception of Amelia and Tray's engagement, everything was as it was a week ago. So by the time Friday rolled back around, I was feeling pretty good. I'd be lying to say I wasn't a little nervous to see Eric again. But I wasn't scared about making a good impression anymore. I was mostly excited to see him. I had missed him over the week.

Walking into Pam's, I kept my head held high and told myself that no matter what happened, I would walk back out the same way at the end of my shift. But only a couple hours in, I knew tonight was going to be a hard one. I was having trouble with my shields. I don't know if it was all the mental effort I had been using thinking about Eric recently or what…but I was slipping where I usually held strong. I was catching glimpse from eyes that weren't mine and picking up on conversations on the other side of the room. I was hearing the crude thoughts of men that were dancing with women. The same women who were debating whether or not they were going to sleep with their partner tonight or what drink they were going to get next. It was distracting and frustrating.

I'm pretty sure that's why I was able to bump directly into Eric without even realizing he was in building. Thankfully, there wasn't much force to the hit and neither of us went tumbling to the ground, but it did get his attention and he did turn around to see who had hit him. At this point, I remembered that I had promised Claudine that I would stay out of Eric's head. I agreed that I probably didn't want to know what Eric was thinking, so I pushed up the flimsy excuse for my shields and prayed they held.

"Oh, hello Sookie." He smiled as he said it. I'm pretty sure I smiled in return when I heard his deep voice caress my name.

"Hi Eric, sorry I ran into you, I think I'm just having one of those nights." I rolled my eyes and shrugged, hopping to just play it off. But he smiled at me again. I could practically feel the barriers in my brain slipping as I focused on his beautiful smile. Too late, I tried to put them back up, but it was useless, so I prepared myself to hear just how clumsy and silly I was from the man that had invaded my thoughts of the past week. When it did hit me, the air was knocked out of me. While most of the brains in this place were screaming or slurring or (god forbid) singing, his was a comforting and consistent hum and it felt content and happy. Perhaps the most preferable thing about his thoughts was the fact that I couldn't understand a word of it. They were in a language that I, thankfully, did not speak. He could have been reciting the script of the movie Borat and it was still beautiful. It sounded like him and felt like him, and right now, it was a part of me.

"Don't worry about it. I was looking for Pam, have you seen her?" His question pulled me out of my thoughts and back into reality.

"Oh, sure, I think she's still in her office." He smiled again and gave me a quick thanks and said he'd see me later before disappearing into the back. And just like that, the hum was gone, and the chaos was back; it stayed for the rest of the night. I hadn't seen Eric ever exit the back, but I watched as others filed into the room behind the stage and figured he must have too when I wasn't watching. I was surprised to see the Jason came back, with Ginger in tow. They didn't see me this time and went straight the mysterious door and vanished behind it.

I was so distracted by the constant chatter in my head that I hardly paid attention to what was happening around me. Only when the babbling started to quiet did I realize that the bar was closing and people were starting to file out. When most of the patrons were gone and Maxwell was escorting out the drunks one at a time, Felicia came up to me.

"Hey, Sookie. Pam says she's got some emergency with inventory back in the stock room. Could you finish up behind the bar while I go see if I can help her sort it out?" I was so exhausted by the evening that I didn't even bother to argue or try to negotiate, I just nodded.

I made my way behind the bar and started to wash the glasses that were piled up and clean up the spilt drinks on the counter. I was content to mindlessly clean and bask in the only dull noise made by the brains in the distance. As I was straightening up the bottles that had become askew during the night, a crashing sound behind me roused me out of my dream-like state.

I turned to find a (obviously drunk) man stumble out of the room behind the stage with a woman under each arm. The door was bouncing off the wall, so I assumed this was the noise that had startled me. The women were both in hysterics and the man was chuckling at a much more subdued level. As these three cleared the doorway, another man pushed through and past them and headed straight for the door to the club, slamming it behind him. The next two to emerge from the room I recognized. The first was the very muscular man that had ordered the embarrassing drink last Friday. The second was Eric, who started heading towards the bar when he saw that I was there.

As he made his way over, I got a better look at the first man that had emerged. I finally recognized him as the man with the goatee that I had seen in Pam's thoughts last week. He had taken a seat at a booth with the two women and Maxwell had walked over and started talking to him.

"Hey," Eric said, taking a seat on one of the bar stools, "I told you I'd see you later." He smirked at me. "So did your night get any better?" Yes, now that you're here.

"Not really. It wasn't really something anyone could control, just one of those things." I gave him a quick smirk before pulling out a beer and passing it to him, taking another one out for myself as I did; I was pretty sure Pam wouldn't care. We stood in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Pam came out from the back with Felicia and they both headed over to the table with the strange man; Pam nodded to Eric on the way. After standing and talking for a few minutes, Felicia came back to the bar and got a bottle of tequila and several shot glasses, taking them back with her. I guess we were hanging around tonight.

I walked around behind the bar, fixing and straightening without putting a lot of effort into it. What was left of my shields had disappeared completely hours ago, but the content hum that was sitting across the bar was rather relaxing, and doing a great job of blocking out the other buzzing in the room. As I dusted and wiped, I felt his eyes on me, but chose not to meet them. It was comfortable like this. People in the background, soft music coming from the radio behind the bar…it was peaceful. So we just stood there, drinking, listening to the laughter of the people at the table across the room. However, the peace was interrupted when I heard Eric distinctly singing along to the radio. Softly, singing to the bottle in his hands and the top of the counter…

"I've got hungry eyes, I feel the magic between you and I..." I stopped what I was doing and looked up at him with my eyebrows raised to my hairline and my jaw hanging open. He seemed to realize I was staring and stopped to look up at me.

"What?" He asked, as if he hadn't done anything.

"Were you just singing Hungry Eyes?" I asked in astonishment. It wasn't that I was astonished he could sing, but that particular song seemed a little…emasculating for him to be singing.

"Don't look at me like that. I practically learned English from the movie Dirty Dancing." I wanted to laugh, I felt like I should be laughing, but I was too shocked.

"Are you serious?" He had to be kidding. I could not picture this man watching a movie about the epic love between Baby and Johnny.

"How do you think I learned English?" He was smirking at me now. I had to tease. I couldn't help it.

"By singing ABBA and translating IKEA catalogues." I was so proud of myself that I was able to keep a straight face while saying that. He, on the other hand, burst into laughter. I loved the sound of it.

"Touché," He tilted his beer and tapped it against the neck of mine. "But I'm serious. Pam went through a phase one summer when we were both in our early teens. She must have made me watch it a hundred times." He started laughing. "She talked me into trying to learn the dance with her, and of course, we started by trying to do the lift." He looked up to make sure I was still listening. "The first time I tried to lift her, she kneed me in the face and broke my nose. When I dropped her to hold my face, she sprained her ankle and her mom drove us both to the hospital." Pam had walked over at this point and we were all laughing now. When we'd calmed down a little, Pam spoke up.

"Yeah, but when I healed, we got it down." She leaned over and hugged his neck before releasing it and glaring at him. "Don't play it off like I tortured you. You liked it just as much as I did. You wanted to be just like Johnny."

He sighed and look back down at his bottle. Before he could respond, the muscular man walked over to join us and spoke to him.

"Hey, Eric, Felipe says he won't be going home tonight. He wants you to make sure his…stuff makes it to his house for him." As he said this, the man with the goatee (whom I presumed to be Felipe) got up from the table and made his way to the door with the two women, one of them digging in her purse for her keys. I made a mental note that she at least looked sober and her thoughts didn't seem fuzzy.

"Yeah, sure. I'll take care of it." Eric responded to Muscles before standing up and heading back over to the room behind the stage. He unlocked it before going inside and I wondered if he had done that before and I had missed it through the crowd. He was in there for a few minutes during which Maxwell and Felicia left and Pam went back to her office saying that she was going to stay late and try to get some paperwork done. It was just me and Muscles now.

"I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week," He said to me, reaching over the counter to shake my hand. "I'm John Quinn. But people just call Quinn." Like the medicine woman? Wow. I guess I was tired, at least I didn't say it out loud.

"Sookie." I said in return and smiled. Eric came out from the other room then, he carried with him a thick briefcase.

"It was nice to meet you Quinn. I better get home though. I'm already late and I don't want my roommate to worry." I grabbed my purse from underneath the counter and headed for the back door.

"Wait up Sookie. We'll walk you out. We're both parked out back, too." I turned at the sound of Eric's voice to find both of the men heading in my direction. Quinn walked out first and made his way towards a black sedan. The only other cars were parked next to each other. One was my crappy old car and the other was a bright red corvette. That couldn't be Eric's car could it? It didn't seem like he had that kind of money.

We were both walking along the side of the building towards our cars when I heard it. In a split second I saw the picture of how he would do it, and I reacted. I Grabbed onto the sleeve of Eric's jacket and pulled him towards me. As I did, a tire iron came down in the space that Eric's head had occupied only moments before. Realizing what had happened, Eric pushed the offender into the side of the building, hitting his head on the brick wall. In the space of only a few seconds, Maxwell had collapsed onto the ground at our feet. Eric was emitting a low growling sound and I took a moment to indulge in it before coming back to my senses.

"Oh my god. Is he alive?" I asked him. He looked at me before kneeling down next to our attacker and felt around on his neck for a pulse.

"Yeah. He's alive." He said without looking back up to me. He sat there for a moment before finally looking up to meet my eyes. "How did you know? How did you know what was going to happen?"

I wanted to tell him. I had never told my secret to anyone before. When I was young, it had been hard to hide it, so people that were close to me had figured it out. I had never specifically told anyone since I had learned to control it. But looking at his face, in his eyes, I didn't want to lie; as easy as it would have been. So I didn't.

"I read his mind." I closed my eyes and spoke just above a whisper. My muscles involuntarily tightened in expectation of the yelling and disbelief. I wasn't disappointed.

"YOU WHAT!?" When the exclamation came, it wasn't the voice I thought it would be. I opened my eyes to see Eric glaring over my shoulder. Turning my head, I saw that Quinn had come over to investigate the scene that had just happened, but was now staring at me.

"You can read minds?" He repeated. I saw in his eyes the beginnings of awe and excitement. Oh shit. Eric saved me.

"Sookie. You don't have to be here. Go home, we'll call the police and report it." I looked him in the eye and nodded before jogging over to my car and driving off. I didn't want to be there. Not after what I had seen when I looked at him and felt from the tone of his thoughts. Fear.

**A/N: So, I thought it was the funniest thing ever when I realized the Microsoft word recognizes the word "IKEA". Hehehe. Ok. So , second chapter today. How was it? A little more meaty? I hope you all liked it because now I have Hungry Eyes stuck in my head. Damn it!**

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	8. Reflections of a Vain Prick

**A/N: I know, I know…I'm so cruel. I didn't update yesterday. You know what…shut up! I gave you two the day before and it's entirely possible that I'll have another one up by midnight. So suck it up. Ok…I may be being a little harsh. What I meant to say was : "I love you guys, I'm sorry I got distracted by good weather yesterday and got a sunburn instead of bring another chapter to my loyal fans." So…I'm sorry. But hopefully the following Eric POV with brighten your spirits a little. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Southern Vampire Mystery Series.**

I let my head fall back onto the headrest and listened to the purr of my baby's engine. How the fuck did I get here? I had helped Quinn load up Maxwell into his truck before watching him drive off to wait for Felipe's instructions. I didn't want to know what they were going to do. There is no crime against being ignorant; the same cannot be said for whatever was going to happen to him. Don't get me wrong, I doubt they were going to kill him or do anything like that, but I was pretty fucking sure that Felipe wouldn't let him off with a slap on his wrist…or bump on his head…whatever. I had told Sookie that we were going to call the police. I felt bad about lying, but you can't exactly explain to a police officer that the guy that attacked you was after a case full of cash that was collected under illegal circumstances.

Thinking about Sookie just unlocked a whole new mess of confusion and thoughts. Two weeks ago, I would not have believed that one little swooner could cause so much upset in my routine. Pam had hated when I'd referred to her like that, but a week later, we had both seen the look on her face and her nervous behavior. She'd tried to shake my hand with a handful of broken glass. In a way, it was adorable. Most women got over the shock pretty fast and immediately started trying to seduce me. The swooners of the past had always gone from star-struck to aggressive. I was used to that. But Sookie was different. She was like a little girl. She had the sense to be embarrassed by her reaction, and nothing was cuter than her blush when she realized what she was doing. Fuck, even her Swedish Fish comment was endearing. I would never admit it to Pam, but my instincts about this girl had been wrong.

Initially, I had only thought about the hot blonde because she was…fucking hot. But after that first meeting, I was intrigued.

That night, a week ago, had turned traumatic fast. On my way to the men's room, I was attacked by a gang of drunken harpies in heat. Now usually, drunk women were entertaining in their interactions with me. I'd play along and laugh about the fact that they would say _exactly_ what they were thinking about me, thinking they were being smooth and seductive. But these women had gotten annoying pretty god damn fast. I tried to free myself from the circle they had formed around me, but they didn't like that so much and responded by closing in. Before I knew it, there were women rubbing up against each of my legs. Two others were running their hands up and down my sides and holding onto my arms. I felt hands on my back and squeezing my ass, but I couldn't tell you how many. There was another one in the front that was holding onto my neck and nuzzling her head into my chest. I was not enjoying it. I tried to fight back, but those bitches were strong. As if that wasn't bad enough, I swear the lights dimmed and the DJ put on some fucking techno piece of shit that had some sort of tribal beat going on. I really could have killed him.

I was trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get out this in one piece when I felt their hold on me loosen a little. They started grabbing onto each other and squealing. I was about to make a run for it when I was pulled away from them and over to the wall. I could feel that it was a woman's hand and at this point I knew it was futile to resist. I just closed my eyes and braced myself for whatever was about to happen. When I finally did open my eyes, I was looking into the most beautiful blue eyes I could imagine. They were so soft and comforting, I could have stared at them forever, but I was distracted by the necklace she was wearing. After some confusion, Sookie explained why she had it and I trusted her to lead me off the dance floor that had become my least favorite place.

This lead to her checking out my ass, laughing at claw marks on my back and then agreeing to help me clean them up. In truth, I didn't really want her to leave me alone, I was kind of shaken up from those women earlier, and she had such a comforting presence. I could tell she was little nervous to be around me after her earlier embarrassment…again… endearing. I don't know why, but I caught myself telling her shit about my childhood. I had just met the woman for Christ's sake. When she'd finished, we'd somehow gotten into a tangle and Pam had caught me holding onto the poor girl's thigh. Being Pam, she decided to make Sookie as uncomfortable as possible and I high-tailed it out of their in hopes of sparing the girl whatever I could. After all, she had cleaned up the wild bitch scratches on my back.

I'd gone back to the game to find that I hadn't missed much. It ended up being a long and boring night, during which I often caught myself thinking about the feel of Sookie's thigh. We went until well into Saturday and Felipe decided he didn't want to bother getting together again this weekend. I'd never understood Felipe. When he hired me and proposed the plan, I had assumed he was addicted to gambling and was just creating his own outlet for it. But he was never as excited about playing as I had expected him to be. After watching him for months, I had suspected that he only started the club to socialize and have something he could easily have control of. I figured he was bored.

I didn't work during the week, so I went over to Pam's house on Wednesday afternoon to hang out with her when she wasn't distracted by bar business. I'd hoped we could just spend a day together as the best friends we'd been since we were in diapers. But she had other plans.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She asked me as she opened the door.

"Nice to see you too, Pamela." I sneered as I pushed past her and plopped onto the sofa. If I had known this was how our day would be starting, I would have found something else to do.

"Eric, you know I love you. But I do not understand you sometimes." She closed the door and leaned against it.

"If you would tell me what you're referring to, I might be able to enlighten you on the reasoning behind my actions." I smiled up at her.

"You know what the fuck I'm talking about. Why the hell were you snuggling up to Sookie on my couch? You said she wasn't your type." Shit. I let my head fall back onto the top of the couch and she came to sit in the chair across the room. "I like Sookie. I think she's a good waitress. She's got a good sense of humor. I do _not _want her to quit because you can't keep it in your pants and you end up hurting her."

"Fuck. Pam, give me some credit. If "it"," I used air quotes, "came out of my pants, it would be doing the opposite of hurting her." I looked up and smiled again. Apparently, she didn't like my joke. She threw a pillow at me.

"I'm fucking serious Eric. Don't mess with my staff. Do you know how hard it is to find hot waitresses that aren't ditsy, unreliable, or spend all their time flirting my customers?" She was glaring at me. Shit. I hated it when Pam was genuinely mad at me. I preferred her to be slightly annoyed or frustrated, it was always more entertaining that way.

"Fine. I won't go anywhere near her." I conceded. I was hoping this would end the argument and we would be back to normal. I was not expecting Pam to jump up, stomp over to me, and smack me across the face. In fact, it shocked the hell out of me when she did.

"What the fuck was that for?" I yelled at her while massaging my burning cheek. Damn, that girl could put some serious force behind a hit. I'd have to ask her if she had been working out.

"Don't be difficult. I did not mean that I wanted you ignore her, and you know it." She squatted down on the couch next to me and looked me in the eye. "I know you like her. Don't try and deny it, because I like her, and I have higher standards than you do." She looked at me, begging me to argue, but I knew better. I let her continue.

"What I _do_ want you to do is _not_ be the vain prick that you normally are when you encounter an attractive female you would like to mate with. Just make this easy on yourself, Sookie, and me and just admit to yourself that you might actually like this girl and therefore might not want to fuck it up. That includes groping her the first night you meet her. And don't you dare give me that lame ass story about her just 'helping' you out. Because I know somewhere inside that beautiful head of yours, you wanted to get her alone and feel her up. So stop it. Stop being the piece of shit Casanova you think you are, and be the honestly good man that I know is in there somewhere." She stood up as she finished her rant. "Now get out." She said pointing towards the door.

I just sat there dumb-struck. I couldn't believe what had just happened. Pam had never given a shit about my lifestyle before, why the fuck was she starting now. And what made her think that she knew what I wanted better than I did. _Because you do want Sookie, _my brain supplied for me. Realizing that disobeying Pam was about as useful as fighting a swarm of drunken bitches, I got up and made my way to the door. I opened it up, but stopped at the last second before leaving to look back at Pam. She was fuming, her hands were on her hips and her stare was about to burn a whole through the door. Shit. You better fix this you motherfucker.

"Hey Pam," I said in a soft voice, "have you been working out?" I gave my cheek a theatric rub for good measure. It worked. Her glare faltered and was replaced by a genuine smile.

"Four days a week." She proudly admitted. "I hate the sweat. But fuck me if there isn't always someone pretty to look at while I'm there." She added with a mischievous grin. I returned the grin and walked out, satisfied that we were back on good terms.

And that brought me back to tonight. I can't believe it had only been a few hours since I'd walked into the bar, intending to tell Pam and she was wrong and I planned to keep my distance from Sookie to avoid any problems. Before I could find her, I ran right into Sookie. Over the week, I had forgotten exactly how she looked. I'd never really gotten a good look at her (when I wasn't insane from being recently mauled). She was much prettier than I remembered. Her face was much more relaxed and her eyes were clearer. And she wasn't swooning. She was smiling, and it was genuine. It wasn't forced and she didn't have any ulterior motives of getting me naked, which was both refreshing and disappointing. Hey, I'm being honest here. I didn't really pay attention to what I said to her, but when she walked away, I was wishing that I had said something the required a longer conversation. And then that feeling hit me; that calm, content feeling. I'd been nervous and distracted all week and now I was perfectly clear. And I think I knew why. Fucking Pam would never live this down.

Just sitting at the bar and watching her later that night was a new experience entirely. I had a chance to appreciate the subtle sexually that she was exuding with every move, I hadn't noticed it before. And when she spoke to me, I shared more of my memories of me and Pam's summers. Those memories were the happiest I had, and they seemed even more private because of it, but I told her. And I think I knew why. Was Pam ever wrong?

I liked her. I fucking liked this girl. I was a fucking pansy reminiscing about my god damn childhood, and it wasn't even to soften her up and get in her in bed. God-motherfucking-damnit. I liked her.

But then Maxwell had to be a greedy asshole. And I had to knock him the fuck out. And I was pissed that he tried to attack me with Sookie standing right there, she could have been hurt. I only wished that I'd gotten a few good punches in and enjoyed it a little more. Piece of shit went down with one blow. But then she told me she could read minds. And Quinn heard. Putting the fact that she could read my god damn mind on the back burner…this was bad. I didn't trust Quinn as far as I could throw him; and he looked heavy. I didn't know exactly what he was thinking, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it. He was going to fuck this up. He was going to hurt her.

I did the only thing I could do at that moment to get him away from her. I told her to leave. And she did. And now I was sitting here, in my car, wondering what the fuck I was going to do about this.

**A/N: Microsoft word never ceases to amaze me. Though it realizes that "mutherfucker" is not right…it will not offer spelling suggestions. Leading me to believe that while it will not help you write a profane/angry/malicious document, Word will look the other way (and essentially condone it) when you have a filthy mouth in conjunction with spelling skills (and/or accurate typing skills), because it does recognize "motherfucker".**

**REVIEW REIVEW REIVEW!!!!!!**


	9. Hell Hath No Fury

**A/N: Well well well. We meet again. And I come baring gifts. I come baring a very long chapter, to be more specific. I understand that I told you this would be up last night, but I got a last minute invite to play Guitar Hero World Tour with my friend. I couldn't just turn that down. (BTW: I totally rocked the vocals to Hotel California! I know because the game told me so.) So I'm sorry if you felt neglected. I hope you don't hate me so much that you can't enjoy this beauty of a chapter that follows.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Southern Vampire Mystery Series.**

I knew it was morning. What I couldn't tell you was what day it was. My best guess would be Tuesday. After the episode of Friday night, I had called in sick the next day. Having heard about the incident, Pam was very understanding. I had already planned on taking Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off to take a mini vacation with Amelia and Claudine in a sort of Bachelorette weekend. It seemed that fate didn't want it to happen because Claudine's sister had gone into early labor on Sunday morning and Amelia's coworker had gotten sick, forcing her to fill in on Monday. I had stayed in bed.

I could feel the sun coming in my window and warming my back, but I didn't want to open my eyes. I wanted last weekend to be a dream. I wanted to go back to sleep. That thought was lost the moment I felt something shift in the bed next to me. My eyes shot open to see Amelia lying on her side facing me. She had one hand under her cheek and the other reached over to tuck a few strands of my hair behind my ear. She looked worried. I was about to say something when another arm came from behind me and grabbed my waist, pulling me into a hug. I rolled my head over to see that Claudine was lying behind me with the same worried look on her face. What the hell?

"What are you guys doing in my room? What time is it?" I turned back around and asked Amelia.

"It's about noon." She said. "You didn't wake up when you're alarm went off so I came in. You were sobbing in your sleep. You do it when you're depressed." I rolled over to bury my head in my pillow. Stupid traitorous subconscious.

"So she called me." Claudine continued for her. "What happened? You're not still upset about the trip are you? We can go some other time." She asked as she gently rubbed my back.

"No. It's not that." I answered her before turning back into my pillow. They didn't say anything, but I knew they were both waiting for an explanation.

"I told him." I answered into my pillow. I felt Amelia's hand pushing on my shoulder, I allowed her to roll me over onto my back as I stared up at the ceiling. So far, I hadn't told anyone about what had happened on Friday, I probably would have kept it a secret if they hadn't ganged up on me.

"Who is 'him'?" She asked.

"And what did you tell him?" Claudine joined in. I let out a long sigh.

"I told Eric about my little…talent." I said, touching my finger to Claudine's forehead and raising my eyebrows to make my point.

"Oh." They both said in unison.

"How did he take it?" Amelia asked. I turned my head to her and glared.

"Not well." I turned back to facing the ceiling.

"What did he say exactly?" Claudine probed from my other side.

"He told me to leave. He didn't want me there anymore." They had nothing to say, so we just sat there in silence for a few moments. "Ah! You guys should have seen the way he looked at me." I sat up and looked back and forth between them. "It was like he was expecting me to sprout fangs and claws and rip him to pieces!" I flopped back onto my pillow and hugged it to my face.

"Fuck him." Amelia oh so helpfully deduced before standing up and leaning against the post at the foot of the bed. I removed the pillow from my face to glare at her again.

"It's not just about him." She looked incredulously at me. I sat up again to stare at her. "Fine, it stings that he can't accept it. But it's more than that. He's the first person I've ever told outside of my family. I wasn't naïve, I expected people to think I was crazy or joking…but he was scared of me." Claudine resumed rubbing my back as my eyes started to sting with tears.

"I've never done anything bad with my gift. But the way he was looking at me…I felt like I should be ashamed of something that I can't change and didn't ask for in the first place." I was full on crying now and Claudine was hugging me again.

"Well," She said to the top of my head, "fuck him." She released me and looked up to see her giving me a small smile. I laughed at her and hugged her harder.

"You smell. Get your but up and take a shower. What you do after that is up to you, but stop moping." Amelia

------

I was up and showered. I'd spent a little while talking to Amelia and Claudine, avoiding the subject of Eric, before they'd both left to do other things. Gran was out for the afternoon with Maxine again. The house was just too quiet, there was nothing stopping me from going back to bed. I needed to do something. I looked around and mentally rejected the television and bookshelves. I didn't want to cook if I was only doing it for myself. Music didn't seem too appealing. I needed to get out. But I didn't want to be in public where I might spot someone I know…like Eric or Pam.

It was a beautiful drive. I spent the entire time listening to the wind blowing through the windows, causing my hair to fly in wild directions. The sun was shining and there were only a few clouds in the sky. As I got closer, the space between houses grew and was replaced by large expanses of trees and dense forest. Before I knew it, I was pulling up to the familiar gravel drive of my childhood home.

I went up to the front door and knocked. I had a key, but it didn't seem right to just let myself in when it was technically Jason's home. I waited for a few moments before Jason and answered wearing only a pair of jeans and holding a shirt.

"Oh! Hey Sook!" He said when he saw me. He scrunched up his face and scratched the back of his head. "Shit, I musta forgot you were comin'."

"No, you didn't. I didn't tell you. It was a spur of the moment decision. I thought I'd come by and cook you dinner." I explained with a smile. His head snapped up at the mention of food and he opened the door wider to let me in.

"Sure, sis. Come on in. Just give me a second." He held up one finger and dashed back down the hall that led to the bedrooms and bathroom. I did a slow turn to reacquaint myself with the place. It was very different form when the whole family had lived here. For one, it wasn't nearly as tidy; Jason was never the neat freak that Gran or I had been. Jason didn't have as many things as we had had, he didn't need them. He rarely spent much time here. I doubt he even slept here most of the time; I'm sure he'd be able to find a warmer bed somewhere in the area. He didn't even have a television.

I made my way into the kitchen and laughed a little when I opened the refrigerator. Beer, ketchup, and a package of lunch meat. Luckily, I had anticipated this and stopped at a grocery store on the way for anything I would need. I went back out to the car to collect my bags. When I came back to the kitchen, I stopped in my tracks and tried not to draw any attention to myself.

Jason was saying goodbye to a brunette woman who was backing out the back door and onto the back porch. She was wearing a dress…but so was I, and our clothes were nothing alike. MY dress was mint green, knee length, short sleeved, and unbuttoned at the top to reveal a lace-trimmed camisole. HER dress was black, halter, came just below the top of her thighs, and the top was so loose with draping fabric I was surprised she could convince it to hang over the right area. One of the women in this room was doing to walk of shame, and I was pretty sure it wasn't me.

I stayed silent while their short exchange took place and she left. He turned back to face the rest of the room and took a seat at the table while I set the bags down on the counter.

"So what happened to Ginger?" I asked. I wasn't really surprised that it hadn't lasted, but I was still curious.

"Oh shit." He started, leaning back into his seat and setting his legs up on another chair. "She left me." I turned and made a motion for him to continue before turning back to sort through the groceries.

"Fine. I think it was…Sunday night…we were gonna go out to dinner, but she was late. When she finally did get there, I might have been flirting a little with the waitress. She hit me, told me she'd had enough of my shit, and said she'd be somewhere in the Caribbean if anyone asked." He shrugged when he finished.

"And the girl that just left…was she the waitress?" I smiled and looked back at him.

"How'd you know?!" He gave me a goofy grin.

"Lucky guess." I turned and winked at him. He sat quietly and watched me make dinner after that. I loved cooking in this kitchen. It was where I learned how to cook with Gran. It was so familiar to work at the old stove and hear the warped floorboards near the sink creak under my bare feet. It smelled the same as I remembered, and I loved it.

All the preparation was done and the food was in the oven when I took a seat across from Jason. I was about to ask him what his plans were for the week when there was a knock at the front door.

"Expecting someone?" I asked my brother with a teasing grin on my face as we both stood up.

"Actually, no." He replied as he went to get the door while I leaned against the door jamb that separated the kitchen from the living room and entryway. Part of me was hoping that it was one of Jason's friends, like Hoyt; I hadn't seen in ages. Part of me was hoping it wasn't anyone I knew, I was trying to avoid the rest of the world today.

Both parts were disappointed. But disappointment was easily trumped by surprise and confusion when I saw Eric standing at the door, with Quinn close behind. How did they find me here?

"Oh, hey." Jason eloquently greeted them. "Quinn and…Aaron, right?" He pointed to each man as he remembered their names.

"Eric." Eric corrected.

"Right. Sorry." Jason seemed completely caught off guard by their appearance, so I stepped in.

"Hi guys." I said as I walked over to stand next to Jason. "What are you doing here?" I asked when I reached my position.

When Eric realized I was there, his jaw dropped open a little bit from the tight line it had been in before. His eyes grew so wide I was surprised they didn't fall out of his skull.

"Sookie," He answered slowly. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question…actually, I already did." I laughed. Quinn stepped closer to the door so he was equally as close as Eric and smiled at me.

"I guess what I meant was, how do you know Jason?" He seemed very cautious, it was a little unsettling.

"He's my brother. This is his house, but I'm here visiting for the evening." I couldn't understand why he was acting so strange. It also hadn't escaped my knowledge that he hadn't told me why he was here. When I answered him, he closed his eyes and let his head fall back. I could hear him muttering in that language I didn't understand before he quickly regrouped and looked back at me and Jason.

"Sookie, Quinn and I need to talk to your brother. Could you excuse us?" This wasn't good. Knowing I couldn't understand Eric, I peeked into Quinn's mind. Having never paid much attention to his mind before, I didn't know what his thoughts were usually like; but right now, he was blank. It was as if he had no observations or options on the current situation. It looked like I was going to have to listen to Jason's thoughts from the kitchen while they talked in order to find out what was going on. I started to turn and head back when a hand grabbed tightly onto my forearm. I looked back and was shocked to see fear of my brother's face as he held me in place.

_Don't leave me, Sookie._

It was as clear as if he'd said it out loud. Like everyone else growing up, Jason always had suspicions about my gift. The difference between Jason and the rest of my family was that he had never asked me directly, and I had never offered the information. He knew what I could do, and I knew he knew, but we didn't talk about it. We had an unspoken understanding. But now, he was sending me a direct message. And I received it, loud and clear.

"Whatever you have to say to my brother, you can say to me." I said as I stood up tall next to my brother. Eric looked over to Quinn, asking a silent question. He shrugged in return. Eric's eyes darted between Jason and me, but he didn't say anything.

"Won't you come in? Can I get you some tea?" Thank you Gran for giving me manners and the means to end an uncomfortable silence. Both men nodded and stepped inside. They slowly made their way over to the sofa and sat down, as if unsure if it was alright. I quickly went into the kitchen and brought out four sweet teas, making sure that dinner was ok before going back out.

I took a seat in one of the chairs across from the sofa and Jason took the other. I set the teas down on the coffee table and Quinn quickly picked his up and took a sip before setting it down and smiling at me. Eric wasn't nearly as relaxed. He was bent forward, looking at the floor, with his hands clasped and his arms resting on his knees.

"So what did you need to talk to Jason about?" I asked. Eric's head shot up and sat back up when I spoke.

"Jason," He addressed my brother and didn't so much as glance at me. "The check bounced."

I had no idea what he was talking about. I dug into my brother's mind to find him reciting a string of profanities. That wasn't helpful. I felt my forehead crinkle as I looked over at Eric, asking a silent question. He was staring intently at me and with my shields still down I saw a flash of the door next to the stage at Pam's bar. I concentrated a little harder and saw it even clearer. He was concentrating on the door. I sat up a little straighter and very slightly turned my body towards him, wondering what he was doing. He must have taken this as a sign of my attention and the image changed. He was explaining it to me. He was showing me. Before I could think anymore about his actions, I was bombarded with images. I saw tables with people sitting around them. I saw Felipe with Quinn standing behind him. Eric was concentrating so hard but would get ahead of himself and flash to something else before coming back to what he meant for me to see. He finally got closer to the tables and I could see the people were all playing cards, I saw chips being swept away and towards players. He quickly flipped through images of individuals standing up and him opening the door for them to leave. Then it was just Felipe and my brother, with Ginger hanging onto his neck and resting her head on his shoulder. My brother had that dumbass grin on his face when he was getting his way.

"_Well if you're so sure, how about we make this more interesting?" _I heard Felipe say. Eric didn't stay there, he skipped forward. Ginger was tearing out a check and placing it on the stack of chips in the middle of the table. Oh no. No, no, no. I knew exactly what had happened without needing Eric to tell me. In her anger at my brother, she had cancelled the check before it could be cashed, I would bet my life on it.

_I'm sorry, Sookie... I didn't know he was your brother._ Eric's voice was reverberating in my brain. He had deliberately thought in English so I could understand. That was it, the room was gone and he was back to his normal incomprehensible hum. I locked up my shields, I didn't want to hear or see anything else from anyone in this room. At some point during Eric's retelling I'd let my head fall forward and rest between my knees. I made no motion to move it.

"But it wasn't my check." Jason had finally pulled himself together.

"We already went to Ginger's. She's not there, hasn't been for days. Nobody knows where she is." Quinn shrugged and picked up his tea again.

"How much?" I asked from between my knees.

"Twenty thousand." Eric answered me. Without realizing what I was doing, I stood up and took the two steps to stand in front of my brother before slapping him right across the face. Apparently, Eric thought I was going to continue and grabbed me from behind to hold my arms to my sides.

"Jesus, Sook!" Jason yelled at me. "Gran told us both we weren't allowed to hit each other!"

"If Gran were here, she would be tanning your hide Jason Stackhouse. I am saving her the commute!" I screamed back at him. "What were you thinking? Gambling with someone else's money?"

"You of all people should know that I don't think before I do anything!" At least he was being honest with himself. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back to rest on Eric's chest while I took a few deep breaths. I opened my eyes to find Eric staring intently down at me with a smirk on his face.

"Feeling better?" He asked just above a whisper. I nodded and he let me go. I instantly wished that I had let him hold on to me longer…maybe if I hit Jason again?

"So do you have the money or not, Stackhouse?" Quinn asked from the sofa. I had forgotten he was there.

"Yeah, let me go get that for you. Cash ok?" Apparently Jason hadn't realized that now was not the time to be sarcastic. He did, however, realize after he had said that.

"No, I ain't got no money. And I don't own anything nice that I could sell, you can see that for yourselves." He motioned around the room. He couldn't pay. I didn't want to know what was going to happen to my brother if he couldn't come up with the money. I wasn't willing to find out, even if he was a dumbass…he was my brother.

"I've got some money." I said to the floor. "Not all of it, but some. About half." I had been saving since I first started waitressing at the age of sixteen. I didn't spend much living with Gran and Amelia, so most of my money went into savings. I had planned on using it on a home when I got married and had a family. "I can live off my tips, so you can have all my paychecks until it's paid off."

"I'll pay you back, Sook." Jason reached up from where he was sitting to grab my hand. I yanked it away and glared at him.

"I don't want your imaginary money, Jason." He flinched at my tone. "You're going to give me this house." I left no room for argument, and he just nodded his head and stared at the floor.

"So that's it then. Is it settled?" I asked Eric.

"Sookie, I don't think Felipe…" Quinn started to say while standing up. Eric cut him off.

"It'll work. It's fine. Let's go." He glared at Quinn for a few moments before Quinn finally shrugged and they both made their way out the door without saying another word. It was silent for several minutes and neither I nor Jason moved a muscle.

"Thank you, Sookie." He finally broke the silence.

"No problem. Enjoy your dinner." I said before grabbing my purse and walking straight out the door. I couldn't stand to look at him right now.

**A/N: Hmmm…what do you think? Before you get on my ass about Sookie being so violent, I would like to explain: It's my story, he deserved it…deal with it. **

**Much love to all of you lovelies that are reading and reviewing. You guys are the best. I hope I'm keeping up my end of this bargain.**

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!**


	10. Author's Note

You people are FREAKING AMAZING. I just got my 100th review on this story. You guys have earned a little treat. But how sweet your little treat is…depends on you. That's right, it's poll time.

So go to my profile and take the poll. By doing so, you are will be casting a vote to determine the point of view of a one-shot. This one-shot will take place as a side story the one that is currently happening in Dead Man's Hand.

You're choices are:

**The D-Bag DJ Bill,**

**The Supportive Friend Claudine,**

**A Bachelorette Badass Bitch (from the club),**

**The Ex-Boyfriend Sam, OR…**

**The Snobby Rich Girl Ginger!**

Choose wisely my pretties, you only get one vote.

The poll will close after True Blood this Sunday. So get to voting!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT AND ENTHUSIASM!

YOU GUYS ROCK!


	11. Corvette Hood Confessions

**A/N: I know, I'm a terrible person. I made you wait for like…four days for this update. I'm sorry. I had writers block. There is still a bunch of stuff that I don't like about this chapter, but I'm giving it to you because I'm sick of it and ready to move on to bigger and better things. I actually took some time in the past four days to lay out the whole rest of my story. If I stick to my plan, we've got about four or five more chapters to go and you won't be hearing from Sookie for a while, sorry. Just know that I really struggled with this one and I even considered skipping it, but I felt like my characters weren't ready for what is about to happen, they needed so time, so I gave it to them. If it's that bad, just forget about it and tune back in for the next chapter, which I hope will be much better.**

**P.S. Sorry about the long Authors Notes with this chapter, there's a big one at the end too.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own SVM or its characters, the honor belongs to Charlaine Harris.**

When Pam had decided that Karaoke would bring in more business during the week, she obviously had never heard the people in this town sing. I was leaning against the bar laughing my ass off with Felicia at a disgusting rendition of Hey Mickey by three drunk women in business suits. Promotion celebration? I had no way of knowing, and I didn't care; they were making my working environment much more enjoyable. Not only was I close to pissing myself from laughter, but Bill was too busy handling the karaoke that he had no time for ass grabbing. It was a good night.

It was also slow, even more so than an average Thursday; whether this was the result of the karaoke or not was unknown. Almost no one was sitting my section. Anyone who had been, like the business women, had flocked over to the stage area once they were buzzed enough to forget that they had no rhythm. So I was standing behind the bar doing nothing, and I couldn't care less what Pam would have thought of it…there was no way I was missing a free show like this.

"You know, we tried this once before on a Friday. Except Pam had the brilliant idea of turning into a kind of contest…won by applause." Felicia pulled her eyes away from the stage to smirk at me before turning her attention back and continued. "It came down to these two groups of girls, who we learned later were from rival sororities. When one group was announced the winner, a girl from the other group threw a microphone at them and chipped some girl's tooth. They ended up in a pile on stage that not even Maxwell could pull apart. We had to call the cops."

I couldn't figure out what I was laughing harder at, Felicia's story or the guy on stage that was currently singing Just Dance and shaking his ass at the crowd that had formed.

"Yeah, but the next night we had a line around the corner of people wanting into the club where several sorority girls got their tops ripped off the night before. I maintain that it was the best idea I ever had." Pam settled in on my other side and nudged my shoulder. I smiled at her as we all went back to watching the live entertainment. We were able to stay like that for four songs before Felicia noticed someone at the end of the bar and went to tend to them. She came back fairly quickly though.

"That fine male specimen at the end of the bar wanted me to tell you that his name isn't Fred Flintstone but he'd like to make your bed rock regardless." Felicia said as she slumped back on the bar while giving me a broad smile. I whipped my head around to get a good look at the jackass who was about to have a Sookie's hand-sized mark on his face. When I finally saw him, my body instantly relaxed and walked over to him.

"I'm sorry sir, we don't serve fairies here." I said giving him a stern look. He smiled before quickly wiping it off his face and looked shocked, he even brought a hand up to his heart and leaned back in mock offense.

"I am an Elf…thank you very much." He winked at me and straightened up.

"Are you sure? Because you look suspiciously like a retard with these things on." I reached across the bar and flicked the pointed tip of his fake ear.

"Give me a break, it was famous fantasy night, I was dressed as that guy from lord of the rings." Claude was Claudine's brother and worked at a strip club in town. They always had these weird theme nights that I never understood. I rolled my eyes.

"So what are you doing here? Somehow I don't buy the idea that you're here to make my bed rock." Claude had been out of the closet for as long as I had known him, and I wouldn't have been his type even if he was into girls.

"Claudine was worried. She hasn't heard from you in a couple of days and she's stuck in Monroe helping out Claudia with the baby. So I'm playing her little messenger boy. How am I doing?" He lifted his cosmo and took a sip…pinky extended. Jesus…could you say 'flamboyant'?

"Well I'm flattered that…" I wasn't allowed to finish my sentence before he interrupted me.

"Be still my heart, look what just walked through that door!" He was practically drooling and staring past me. I turned around to see Eric standing in front of the doors; he spotted Pam and went over to talk to her. I turned back to Claude and rested my head in my hands.

"Shit." I mumbled to the counter. I hadn't seen him since the fiasco with Jason two days ago. But I should have known he was coming in tonight. I'd gotten my paycheck earlier and he'd want me to had in over to him.

"Oh my god!" Claude interrupted my thoughts and I stood back up to look at him. "That's not Mr. Scratches is it?"

"Shit. Claudine told you about that?" I should have known better. I did know better. Claudine told the other two thirds of the triplets everything. When I'd gotten my period the first time, I only told Amelia and Claudine, but Claude had refused to go swimming with us and claimed I'd attract sharks. I'd never truly forgiven her for that. But thinking of that made me realize how minor this was, I'd let it slide.

"Just don't say anything if he comes over, ok?" I glared at Claude to make sure he'd get the message.

"I do not plan on staying that long. That boy has got some serious daggers in his eyes and they're all shooting at me right now." He gave me a smirk when he saw the confusion on my face. "You hooked yourself a jealous one." He whispered conspiratorially.

"I'll tell Claudine you said hi, but you should call her tomorrow."He hopped up off the stool and leaned over the counter to give me a peck before setting some cash down on the counter and heading out. I watched as he smirked at Eric before waving to me as he backed out the door. I checked to see Eric's reaction. If looks could kill, Claude would be a worm-infested corpse on the floor right now. That thought made me a little warm and fuzzy…maybe Eric wasn't so scared or hated me if he was getting jealous of Claude.

As soon as Claude had left, Eric recovered and said something quick to Pam before walking over to me.

"Hey." He said as he took a seat at the bar.

"Hi. I have something for you. Well…for Felipe anyway." I pulled my paycheck out of my apron and slid it across the bar for him.

"Great. Thanks." He had yet to look at me. I wasn't about to draw this out into a long, uncomfortable silence; so I started to step away and head back to the girls who were still watching the drunken karaoke.

"Hey, wait." He said as I started to leave.

"Yeah?" I looked back to see that he had finally looked up at me. He looked nervous so I smiled reassuringly.

"I was wondering if you wanted to get a cup of coffee with me? I wanted to talk to you." He shrugged as his fingers played with the envelope I'd just given him.

"Um, I'm working." I said motioning to my surroundings. I giggled a little as I said it, but I was anything but happy, I wanted to spend some time with him more than anything.

"It looks like a slow night. I bet Pam wouldn't mind if you took off early." As much as I needed the work, I nodded to him and made my way over to Pam. I nestled in between the women, where I had been earlier, and turned to Pam. Just as I was opening my mouth to ask, she cut me off.

"Go. Have fun. Use protection." She didn't even look at me, but I saw the corner of her mouth turn up in a smile. That Pam. I didn't say anything else before grabbing the few tips out of my apron and stuffing it under the bar and trading it for my bag instead. I held up one of my fingers to Eric and pointed to the back, he nodded in understanding. I walked directly to the ladies room to change out of my work clothes and into jeans and a pink t shirt and threw on my black jacket as fast as I could. I walked back out to the bar to find everyone in their same spots. Eric saw me and stood up to meet me at the door. He opened it for me and motioned for me to exit.

"Ok if we take my car?" He asked as he dug a set of keys out of his leather jacket. I nodded. He led us both to the red corvette that I had seen the other night, I guess it was his after all. He opened the door for me and I climbed into the leather seat and admired my surroundings while he got in and turned on the car. I had read in a study somewhere that the sound of a sports car's engine was actually proven to stimulate arousal in women; I have to say, I concur. We didn't say anything to each other as he pulled out of the lot and started down the street. We didn't go too far before we pulled into a Denny's and he cut the engine. I looked questioning at him and he snorted a little before answering my unspoken question.

"It's late, there wouldn't be much open." He got out and I followed his lead inside, taking a moment to glance back and laugh at the corvette parked next to the VW van in the Denny's parking lot. We were escorted to our booth by a old woman that seemed completely disinterested in the fact that she had customers. She set down our menus and walked away without a single word. Neither of said anything either, instead, we picked up the menus and started perusing. Several minutes later a young man came over and we both ordered coffee and I got a couple pancakes…I had a feeling I was going to need comfort food. When the waiter left, we sat in silence again. He brought our coffees and we still didn't talk. The silence was filled by the clanging of my spoon on my cup as I stirred in some sugar and cream. Suddenly, Eric sat up a little straighter and pushed his coffee away.

"I'm probably just making it worse by sitting here, so I'll just get to it." He looked up to meet my eyes. "I'm really sorry."

That wasn't what I was expecting. I felt my forehead crinkle and my eyes narrow a little as I maintained eye contact and willed him to explain.

"Shit. You probably think I'm such a jackass. I don't blame you, I just want you to know that I'm really sorry for everything that you've heard. I mean, I can't really control it and I'm not sure exactly what you've heard, but I'm pretty sure there have been some things that were…less than appropriate. And I don't want you to judge me just based on what I think because…I really do want to get to know you better." He was rambling. I put my hand up to silence him and he immediately stopped. I couldn't decide if I should let him stew about whatever it is that he's been thinking, or just let him off the hook. I glanced up again to see him looking nervously down at me. The table was shaking a little too, I was pretty sure it was from his leg's bouncing. This guy needed to relax, so did I. I pulled out a flask from my bag and dumped a little into his cup before adding some to my own. I silently thanked Amelia for giving me (and filling) the flask when I broke up with Sam, she'd said it was for emergencies. Eric gave me a shocked look before picking up his coffee and taking a deep drink.

I leaned forward onto the table to reach for his hand to comfort him. His eyes immediately went wide and shot down to my chest that was now being put on display with the help of my v-neck. I straightened up a little as he brought both hands up to cover his eyes before resting his head in his hands.

"Shit! I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have to hear that." He looked up at me with the most adorable desperate look on his face. I giggled a little.

"It's ok, I should tell you something." I gave him a reassuring smile to let him know that it wasn't bad news. "I have no clue what you're thinking."

"What?" That sobered him up pretty quickly. He was much more serious now, just seconds after being so repentant.

"You think in Swedish, and I only speak English." I shrugged and took a sip of my coffee. He was speechless as my pancakes arrived and I covered them in syrup and started to nibble on them.

"So you don't understand anything?" He gave me a dubious look. Why would I lie about something like that?

"Well, I guess it's kind of like watching a Latin soap opera. I can tell what you're feeling, your emotions…but the dialog is lost on me." I took another bite as he pondered. "Oh, I can also still interpret pictures, like you did on Tuesday, I guess that was just luck."

He let out a long sigh and relaxed back into his seat.

"Well, I guess I just made an ass out of myself." He picked up his coffee and finished it.

"It's ok. It's a nice change actually. I've gotten used to the thoughts of men, but it's nice that you're actually embarrassed by it. It's refreshing to hear an apology." I smiled at him and took another bite of pancake.

"So, how did you end up running an underground gambling club?" This question had been killing me since Tuesday night when I had a chance to absorb all that had happened that day. He just looked up and smiled before picking up his fork and reaching over to my plate. I pulled my plate away from the invasion and protected it with my arm.

"If you want some, you should have ordered some." I stuck my tongue out at him. "But if you answer my questions, I might be willing to share."

We were interrupted when the waiter came back to fill up our coffees. I pulled the flask back out and offered some to Eric; he shook his head and watched as I put the rest in my own. I felt I was entitled; I was giving up my savings to pay off my brother's debt, still living with my grandmother, plagued by mind-reading abilities, watching my prime reproductive years slipping away, and having coffee with the guy that I liked…who happens to make a living though illegal means. Give a girl a break.

"Fine. I don't run an underground poker club. I just work there." He picked up the fork and looked questioningly at me. I shook my head and made a motion for him to continue. He narrowed his eyes, so I slowly took another bite. I may or may not have made moaning sounds to emphasize the yumminess, but it worked regardless. He continued.

"Felipe has known my family for many years, he and my father were business associates. He knew I needed a job and when he got the idea for his little club, he brought me in. He needed someone to do security and…supervise. For the most part, I just do what he tells me. It pays well and I only have to work a few days a week." He waved the fork around a little and I pushed the plate into the middle of the table. He immediately took a bite and chewed with a smug smile on his face.

"Who was the guy you were talking to at Pam's tonight." It had been a couple silent minutes of eating when he asked this. I looked up to see that he was no longer smiling. Well, well, well.

"He's just the brother of one of my friends." There's no need for Eric to know that Claude is gay. I took a sip of my coffee. I was starting to feel the alcohol. I don't know what I had been thinking, I was a lightweight. Maybe it was the syrupy pancakes; hadn't I read somewhere that sugar affects how your body absorbs alcohol?

We sat for a few more minutes while we both finished our food and drinks. We talked a little about Pam and her club, he told me that they had originally planned to open one together, but it hadn't worked out. Eric paid the check (despite my protests), and we got back in the car to head back to Pam's parking lot. When we got there, the sign was off and the bar was closed. My car was the only one left in the lot.

"Shit. I'm buzzed from my coffee. I don't know if I can drive home." I rested my head against the seat and closed my eyes.

"Do you want me to drive you home?" Eric voice reverberated around the car. I turned my head to look at him.

"No. I can't leave my car here overnight. Let me get out, maybe the cold will sober me up." I opened my door and stepped outside, I heard him do the same thing but I didn't look over.

"We can just sit here for a few minutes; see if you feel any better. But I'd rather just drive you home than you chance it." He said. I looked up to see him sit on the hood of his car and cross his legs out in front of him. I went over to take a seat next to him. We sat in silence for a few minutes before he spoke up.

"I know that I was rambling earlier, but I really did mean what I said." I was confused. Was he still talking about being sorry for his thoughts? I thought we had gone over this. Apparently my confusion was evident on my face because he continued.

"I do want to get to know you better. I really like you." I smiled at his unsure tone and voice and leaned back so I was lying on the hood of his car and my head was on the windshield. He turned and looked back at me.

"I like you too Eric, you're welcome to try and get to know me better. I might try the same thing for you." I laughed a little at our jr. high declarations of affection. Maybe next he'd ask to hold my hand or carry my bag to my car. I hugged myself to warm up a little and closed my eyes. I heard him shuffling and a moment later he laid his jacket over my chest and folded arms. It was too cute. I felt him lay down next to me and I opened my eyes to find his face only a little ways from mine. He had is arms behind his head and was staring straight up, as if star-gazing, but his eyes were closed.

Without really thinking about what I was doing, I leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his lips before pulling away just far enough that our lips weren't touching and waited to see how he would respond. I felt him stiffen and his eyes shot open, but he didn't pull away. He closed the small gap between our mouths and kissed me back. It wasn't rough or passionate or earth shattering; but it was warm and soft. He pulled his arm from behind his head and snuck it behind me, pulling me closer into his side. We broke apart at the same time and I nuzzled my head into his shoulder and he turned his head and kissed my hair. That was that last thing I remember, the warmth of being curled into Eric's side with his hand resting on my hip.

**A/N: I can't tell you how happy I am to be done with this one. I feel liberated. We've crossed this little bump together and now things will hopefully be heating up and if I do this right, there's going to be some drama. We'll see how I do. BTW: You may have noticed, I extended the poll that I set up last time. I did it because I was so distraught when I realized that there was no True Blood episode this Sunday, instead, they gave me a stupid rerun. As my own personal form of protest, I decided to watch Twilight with my mom…take that True Blood Producers! (No offence to the great Mrs. Harris whom I do not believe has any say in the air dates of True Blood episodes.) So does anyone know why the hell they decided to torture me? It wasn't just me that missed it, right? Should I be trying to recall who I pissed off at my local cable company? **

**AHHHH! It is really hard to stay motivated with my own story when I have to wait another whole week to find it if Lafayette is going to survive the season…if Jason and Sarah Newlin are going to get it on…or what the fuck is up with Daphne???!!!! Plus…I really needed another AS fix and all I get is an old episode!**

**Ok, I'm ranting, I'll let you go. I hope you all had a pleasant Fourth of July! Any malfunctioning firework stories to share?**


	12. The Joy of Morning Wood

**A/N: I know it's not as long as you're used to, but I really wanted to get something out today and I'm really tired. I hope it's not riddled with mistakes or completely stupid. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: All rights to SVM belong to Charlaine Harris.**

Pam POV

How is it that I spent every night at a club and still wake up in an empty bed? That is complete bullshit. This was the first beautiful thought that entered my head as I sat up, tuned off the alarm, and make my way to take a shower. I really needed to get my ass in gear today. It was a Friday, it would be busy, it would be loud, there would be problems, and I was breaking in a new bouncer who would have to handle them…I needed to be at my best today. As if the mere fact that it was Friday wasn't bad enough, I had a stack of neglected paperwork sitting on my desk and a couple of deliveries coming in, hence the early wakeup call. I would be dragging my ass into the office at six in the god damn morning. But it was worth it.

True, I had been a lazy bitch, I hadn't done my work. But it was so much more entertaining to watch the drama that had been unfolding at the club. It all started a couple weeks ago with Eric being his usual douche and Sookie falling all over herself. I knew before they'd even met that they would be great for each other, if only they could pull their heads out of their asses and get with the program. I'd tried my best to orchestrate their meeting. The faster these two realized they were meant for each other, the sooner I would get little nieces and nephews and be the coolest aunt on the planet and spoil the rotten. (I wouldn't technically be an aunt, but figured I would be performing the same duties…Eric and I were as close as any siblings.)

By the time I had gotten out of the shower and was choosing the outfit for the day, my mind had moved through the mental timeline and had made it up to last Friday. What a spectacular evening that had been. Sookie and Eric were finally relating to each other like a couple of adults; and then Maxwell has to be an ass and try to rob them. If he had hurt Eric or Sookie, I would have killed him myself. Instead, Eric bashed his head in and told me that Quinn had taken him for Felipe to deal with. Whatever, I don't want to know. The much more important revelation that night was Sookie's little secret. Eric had told me that Sookie could read minds. I thought he was being a jackass and trying to play a prank on me, but his demeanor never changed and I'd finally bought it. I was fine with it, I could tell from the beginning that there was something different about Sookie, something special. It's one of the reasons I liked her so much, but Eric seemed nervous. He wouldn't tell me why, and I didn't think it was just fear of the unknown. I didn't push though.

Then the fiasco with Jason happened and Eric got bit in the ass for taking this stupid job. The Sookie tried to Jason's hero, Quinn tried to be an ass, and Eric tries to be Sookie's hero. So much drama. I feel like any moment someone is going to tell me I'm living in a soap opera and I'm secretly a mermaid…and that my next scene is to have half-fishy sex on a beach with a hot Latino. I must say, I wouldn't reject the idea.

Trying to figure out the mechanics of mermaid mating got me all the way to my car, through the Starbucks drive thru, and halfway to the club. I'd have to ask Eric, I'm sure he'd have something to share on the subject. Shit. Eric. I remembered my phone had been on vibrate and was ready to smash my head into the steering wheel for being so stupid. He'd gone out with Sookie last night. I was officially calling it a date because no one else had been with them and he had asked her to go. He'd promised to call as soon as he dropped her off and tell me how it had gone. I reached into my bag and checked the little screen. Nothing. What. The. Fuck. I threw my phone back into the passenger seat and decided to call him once I reached my office; I didn't trust my multi-tasking skills this early in the morning.

I'd never liked the employee parking lot, it was very secluded behind my building and the one next to it; it was only accessible through an alley way that gave me the creeps when I had to leave really late. In the light of six am, however, it wasn't too bad. In fact, the only bad thing was that my car was not the only one in the lot, like I had expected it to be. There were two other cars, and I knew the flashy red sports car was Eric's. This was weird. This was not right. Thoughts of last week's attempted robbery popped up again and I began to worry what had happened. I pulled up near the car and cut the engine, another glance and all my worries were washed away and replaced by amusement.

As quietly as I could, I got out and closed my door before walking over to the hood of Eric's car and getting a better look at the scene before me. Eric and Sookie were both asleep on the hood…snuggling. They were facing each other and Eric had his arms wrapped around her waist from both sides. She had a leg thrown over both of his, bent and resting on his thigh. She had one hand clutching his jacket, which was pressed between the two bodies. Her other was fisted around a clump of his hair that had fallen over his shoulder. He had his face buried in her hair. It was fucking adorable.

I silently thanked whoever had thought of putting a camera in a cell phone as I pulled mine out. When I bought it, I had splurged and gotten a nice one that came with a remarkably good camera. It had seemed stupid at the time, but now I was getting my money out of it. Click…that one is going to be my screen saver. Change angle…and…Click…I'll photoshop my face into this one and use it as a Christmas Card. Click…Eric is getting a mug with that one on it.

I knew I'd hit the jackpot when Sookie shifted her leg a little and I got a perfect view of morning wood pitching a tent in Eric's pants. I don't know what I had done to have god smile upon me in such a way, but I would not let this opportunity pass without taking full advantage it. Click, click, click. I emailed all the photos to my private and business emails, just in case anything violent was to happen to my phone. I tucked the phone reverently into my back pocket and stepped up to the hood. Who to wake first? My darling cousin with a hard-on? Or my hot telepathic waitress? Decisions. Decisions. Well, I've never been good at making these kinds of choices.

I sat back down in my driver's seat and slammed my palm down on the horn. Both of the lovebirds sat up and looked over at me. Sookie looked around before turning bright red and hiding her face in Eric's chest again. Eric scowled at me. I gave him a little wave and got back out of my car.

"Sleep well?" I asked when I was standing next to the hood.

"Seriously Pam, that was the best way you could think of to wake us up?" Eric was still holding Sookie, who was hiding her face in his chest.

"You're right. That was insensitive." I made a pouty face and hung my head. "Forgive me?" I batted my eyelashes for good measure. He shook his head in exasperation while I walked over and took a seat on the edge of hood.

"So Sookie…I've never done it on a hood before. How was it? Did you take my advice?" I grinned at her back and watched as she quickly stood up and started mumbling about having to get home and seeing me later. She got in her driver's seat and drove off without looking back. I didn't think they'd actually had sex, but her reaction was making me wonder.

"You didn't do anything untoward with my waitress did you?" I raised an eyebrow at Eric as he stretched his arms.

"No. It was completely innocent." He stood up to continue stretching out. I guess the hood of a corvette isn't exactly the most comfortable place to sleep.

"What…did you confess your undying love and fall asleep star gazing and talking about how many kids you want?" I walked to my car to get my bag and motioned for him to follow me into the club.

"Actually…" Jesus Christ, if he did any of that I'm officially filing a missing person's report for Eric Northman, because this is not him. "We did both agree that we liked each other. But she was tipsy and we mentioned nothing of children."

"Aw. Did you get to hold her hand?" I asked in a childish voice.

"Shut the fuck up." He groaned as he flopped down on my couch.

"You 'shut up', you pansy ass mothafucka! Can't believe you didn't hit that shit." I had switched over to my best gangsta impression now. This whole incident had completely brightened my mood.

"I thought you didn't want me to go about this the same way I usually do." He threw back at me.

"Since when do you listen to anything I say?" I shuffled through the papers on my desk for a few minutes and turned on my computer to check emails. I giggled a little when I went through the pictures I had taken earlier.

"What is it?" Eric asked from the couch when he heard me.

"Nothing. Just some funny chain email." Or at least it would be when I forwarded it to everyone we knew…I'll just save that for when he really pisses me off. I smiled at him and he relaxed back into the cushions. We were quiet again for a few moments before his cell beeped with a text message. He looked at it quickly before slipping it back in his pocket and sighing, laying his head further back.

"What's up?" I glanced up at him before returning to work.

"Just some good news. Felipe cancelled the game for this weekend. He's going to Vegas instead." He replied while still staring at the ceiling.

"Awesome. What are you going to do instead?" Felipe was a snobby ass, it didn't really matter how short the notice was or how he effected other people's live, he often changed stuff last minute just because he could.

"Oh, I imagine you'll see my ass sitting in one of your bar stools and harassing one of your waitresses." He finally lifted his head to look at me and smirked. I smiled back.

"In that case, you better go home and shower. I don't want you stinking like my parking lot and blue balls." I blew him a kiss as he flipped me off and left the office. I heard the back door close and convinced myself to finally get some work done.

The cleaners came in and I took care of the deliveries and made a serious dent in the schedules and payroll when I decided to take a break for lunch. I ran across the street and picked up a sandwich and a bag of chips before heading back to my office to eat and maybe watch a soap opera on my tiny TV…maybe it would give me clues about what would happen next in my own life. I had just raised the sandwich off the table to take the first bite when my phone rang. Fucker.

"This is Pam's. Pam speaking."I wasn't in the mood to be clever. I nibbled off a corner of my sandwich and balanced the receiver between my shoulder and ear.

"Hey Pam, it's Sookie." Uh oh. She didn't sound very energetic, usually Sookie had incredible phone presence.

"Hey. What's up? Did you need something?" I set the food down, I'd take Sookie a little more seriously.

"Yeah. Shoot, I hate to do this Pam. I…I can't work tonight. Something's come up. It's kind of an emergency and I really can't get out of it." What the fuck? I was silent and she continued. "I know it's a busy night and I don't want to leave you hanging. I have a friend who could cover. She's my roommate actually and she's got some waitressing experience."

"Shut up." She was rambling and talking way too fast.

"Oh no. You're angry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You've got to believe me when I tell you that I would much rather be working tonight…" She was taking a breath and obviously going to continue.

"Stop. No, I'm not angry. I'm just worried about you. You sound really upset. Are you ok?" Fuck, what could have possibly happened since this morning to upset her so much?

"Yeah, I'm fine. Honest. It's just…ahhhh. I'm between a rock and hard place and being squished like a bug." She sounded so dejected. This was not her. I could tell that she wasn't going to tell me what was up though.

"Ok. Hey, don't worry about work. Take tonight and do whatever you have to do. Just call me tomorrow and let me know you're ok." I was genuinely worried. I had just realized that I didn't know a lot about Sookie. I mean, I liked her. She was funny and smart, but I didn't know much about her life outside of this club. We talked for a few minutes and I told her not to bother sending in her friend, that I would find someone; after that, we both said our good-byes and hung up.

I called in a replacement for Sookie and went out to help Felicia and everybody get ready and made sure that Clancy, the new bouncer, was all ready for tonight. The events of the day were still rolling through my thoughts as I watched the club fill up and the drinking and dancing start once again.

After such a morning and afternoon, you can imagine my surprise when at nine o'clock sharp, Felipe waltzed straight through the door of my club with Sookie, all dolled up, hanging on his arm. Shit.

**A/N: OMG! Super short Author's Notes. Aren't you guys lucky! Just review the chapter to thank me.**

**Crap…almost forgot: The poll was extended to this Sunday night, so if you haven't voted on the perspective of the upcoming side story to DMH, go vote on my profile!**


	13. Vagina

**A/N: I had to ask myself a tough question today. It went something like this: Would my readers prefer a short chapter today, or a much more substantial chapter at some unforeseeable time in the future when I will have the will to write it? I hope you think I chose the right the answer. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: CH owns SVM… and I am lazy.**

This was bad. This was bad for so many reasons. My brain started to list them. Felipe was here; he shouldn't be here. Sookie was here; she wasn't supposed to be here. They were here together; Felipe should be with some bimbo and Sookie should be with Eric. Finally, Quinn was standing watch over Felipe's back, confirming that only Eric had been lied to, most likely to avoid his presence. Bad. Bad bad bad.

What to do first? Call Eric? Confront Sookie? Punch Felipe? The last one sounded like a pretty good option to me, but I doubt that it would have gotten me any closer to answers; but it's possible it could have gotten me tackled by Quinn. My decision was made for me when Felipe pulled on Sookie's arm and directed them both toward the door next to the stage. Shit. I flung myself in their direction, ignoring the protests of the people that were thrown out of my way. I cut them off and started talking before any of them could get their bearings.

"Felipe, I love that color on you. Hey, Quinn nice to see you. Did anyone ever tell you that trying to look inconspicuous only makes you look more conspicuous? Think on it. Hey, you guys don't mind if I borrow Sookie for a second do you? We just need to girl talk. I have a question about the vagina I'm hoping she can answer." Both men's eyes got a little wider at the word 'vagina' and didn't argue when I pulled Sookie away to my office. I slammed the door and leaned against it, only letting go of her arm when we were both safe inside.

"You know Pam…" She gave me a skeptical look. "Of the two of us in this room, I'm pretty sure I'm not the one with the most hands-one knowledge of the vagina."

"What the fuck are you doing here with Felipe?" I decided to ignore her statement.

"Oh that kind of pussy." She smiled at me and took a seat on the arm of the couch.

"Well aren't we quippy tonight." I pushed off the door and went to stand in front of her, hoping my height over her slouched figure would intimidate her and get me some god damn answers.

"He…" She sighed and looked down before quickly recovering to look back up at me with a grin. "He made me an offer I couldn't refuse."

"Explain." I left no room to argue with my tone. "And if I hear any talk of mattresses or cannolis, you're getting a slap to the face."

"Fine." Good girl. "Did Eric tell you about last Tuesday and Jason?" I nodded my head in affirmation.

"Felipe offered to release me from my debt if I help him the next three weekends and one trip to Vegas in the future. It would take me a hell of a lot longer to pay him off with my paychecks. I couldn't say no." Her jaw was shaking a little and I could see she was on the verge of tears.

"Help him do what?" I had an idea, and three seconds later, she confirmed it.

"Cheat…He wants me to read the minds of the other players. We worked out a system. If he should fold, I take a sip of my drink; if he's got a winning hand, I play with his hair." She was talking to the carpet now.

"Won't it look a little odd if you're reaching across the table to play with his hair every other round?" Honestly, I wanted to kill Felipe right now. Not only was he taking my waitress, he was using my friend against her will.

"You don't get it." She looked up to meet my eyes. "I'm not going into that room as a player. He's bringing me as his own personal Lady Luck. I'll be sitting on his lap the whole game. He wants me to flirt and giggle and shit to make it convincing." The sadness in her voice was gone and replaced by anger and hate. I sat down next to her, but neither of us said anything for a few moments.

"I have to get back there. Felipe won't be happy that I've been gone this long." She stood up and started walking toward the door, but stopped. "Pam, would you promise me something?"

I could feel this turning into a trap. I hate promises. Eric made me promise and keep his secrets, and now Sookie was paying for it. On the other hand, what's the worst that could happen? The most she could ask me to do was not kill Felipe, which I'd be happy to delegate to my cousin. I nodded.

"Don't tell Eric about this." Telepathic bitch. "I get the feeling that Eric doesn't really like Felipe, and I'd hate for this to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. No one should lose their job or get hurt because of me. I just want to do my time and walk away from this without any more trouble."

How do you say no to a cute blonde with blue puppy-dog eyes when she's standing there pleading with me? Yeah, I couldn't think of anything either. I nodded and watched her leave.

The next few minutes I spent in my office. I went back and forth between mutilating a stress ball and throwing it at the wall while spewing curses that would make the Osbournes blush. What to do? What to do? Do I ignore a promise; if so, which one? LIGHTBULB!

I keep all my promises. I stay a faithful and trusting boss and cousin. Win win. I walked out to the bar and waited for my plan to be set in motion.

Felicia gave me a funny look after I had been leaning against her bar for a good fifteen minutes. Usually I was a very involved observer over my bar. I would walk around and talk to regulars. I'd check with the waitresses and make sure nobody was getting out of line or causing trouble. I'd buy a drink for a beautiful woman or two. I'd admonish Bill for being a douche and tell him shave the soul patch. Tonight, I was too anxious to do any of that. So I stood at the bar and watched the door. Five more minutes passed before my patience was rewarded.

Eric practically skipped through the door and my heart sank. He was fucking happy and I had to be the bitch to bring him down from it. I could honestly strangle that motherfucker Felipe with my bare hands for being the ass-munching thunder cunt that he is by putting us all in these positions. Eric quickly looked around as he made his way over to the bar and took the seat right in front of me. I had made sure that the seat had remained unoccupied by giving a death glare to anyone who approached it. He smiled as he planted himself in the seat and placed a single pink rose on the counter. Fuuuuuuuck.

"Know of any hot blondes that I can woo with my devilish charm and floral bribery?" He was fucking glowing. Bastard. Why did he have to be so happy? Couldn't he just have been indifferent about coming to my bar to see the girl that only admitted her 'like' for him?

"Well, I like flowers and devilish charm. But roses aren't my favorite…neither are men…especially those that are related to me." I grimaced at what would be coming.

"I thought of that!" His smile got bigger and he pulled out a purple iris from the inside of his jacket and handed it to me. He remembered my favorite flower? Are you kidding me? Is this payback for this morning's gift of blackmail pictures? Why is god so cruel?

"No strings attached." He said, presumably to relax my pained face. "So seriously, where's Sookie?" He still had the god damn smile on his face. I was going to have to ignore it. I was going to stick to my plan.

"She's not working tonight." It wasn't a lie.

"She said this morning that she was." His face quickly became panicked. "Oh no, is she sick?"

"No. She's not sick." Again, not a lie.

"Quick fucking around Pam. Where is she?" Panic had turned into anger. Shit.

"I can't tell you. I promised I wouldn't." I was trying so hard to keep a straight face and not tell him exactly where to find her.

"Pam, just tell me what the fuck is going on. Is something wrong? Is she ok?" I was trying to come up with an answer when one was presented to me. Quinn was walking out of the back hallway and towards the poker room. I brought my head up and stared directly in his eyes before darting them away to look at Quinn. I did it couple more times before he followed my gaze just in time to see Quinn step up to the door, unlock it, and enter. Perfect. Eric turned back to me.

"What the fuck is going on?" Eric completely forgot about the rose that was lying on my bar as he stood up and started walking over towards the door. I wasn't sure if I wanted to follow or not. Before I could make up my mind, Eric already had the door unlocked with his own keys and was through it, leaving the door slightly ajar. A few moments later, the dancers closest to the room stopped and turned to look at it. However, it was far too loud in the club for whatever noise they had heard to travel this far.

Moments later, Eric emerged with Felipe following behind, a smug smirk on his ugly face. They walked straight up to the bar and Eric addressed me.

"Can we borrow your office for a few moments. Felipe and I need to talk." His voice sent a little shiver up my spine and the room felt several degrees colder. I nodded and led the way, unlocking the door and holding it open for them. I followed the men inside, if I was going to have to replace the carpet and/or furniture, I was not going to miss the show that caused it.

As soon as the door was shut, the first punch was thrown.

**A/N: I totally invented a word in this chapter. However, being the bitch that it is, Microsoft Word does not agree that "quippy" is a word. I think they should change the "Ignore" option to the "Shut the fuck up you arrogant know-it-all bitch" option…cuz that's what I said when I hit it.**


	14. Dick

**A/N: I'm such a bitch. I totally didn't tell you who's point of view last chapter was being told from. I'm sure you all figured it out eventually, I'm just sorry if it confused anyone in the beginning. I promise to do better this chapter: it's Eric.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Charlaine's characters…I just put them in imaginary cages and watch them battle it out.**

Eric POV

"What the FUCK is going on here?" I didn't mean to scream the world 'fuck' at the top of my lungs, it just sort of happened. Although, I felt I was entitled to be a little crazed right now. I had walked in, with very little warning, to a scene that need to be explained…and fast.

Sookie had been sitting there in a sexy little cocktail dress that immediately caught my attention. That wasn't the problem though. The fact that she was sitting on Felipe's god damn leg was the issue that I was quite interested to hear the story behind. I think I could have maintained my composure had that been the only thing that bothered me. Unfortunately, my eyes rested on Sookie's hand. It was twirling lazily in the hair on the nape of Felipe's fucking head. What. The. Fuck?

I just stood, not saying anything and watching the scene in front of me. Faster than I could comprehend, my brain decided that it was going to beat the shit out of me. I started wondering if I had been played for some reason I had yet to understand. Was Sookie really in love with Felipe and just pretending to like me? Did she lie to me when she said that she actually liked me?

She whipped her head around and stared at me with a concerned expression. Shit, she could feel what I was thinking. She didn't look smug or evil or cocky…so I told my brain to shut the hell up and never doubt her. But then Felipe turned to look too. When he saw me he gave me that fucking crooked smile and wrapped his fucking arm around Sookie's waist. I lost it. I yelled the only thing I could think of. The question that was truly stumping me. What the fuck was going on?

So here I stood. Waiting for an answer. Sookie cast her eyes down to the floor and refused to answer. Felipe, however, seemed more than happy to oblige me. But it wasn't the answer I wanted.

"Poker." He articulated the word like he was talking to a fucking two year old. He turned back to the table. "You'll excuse me from this round and deal me out until I return." The dealer nodded and Felipe stood up and motioned for me to leave the room ahead of him. He was a smart fucker too, because I can't be sure I wouldn't have broken his fucking neck had he turned his back on me.

I walked out of the room and across the dance floor over to the bar where Pam was sitting. I vaguely recall asking to use her office, but my mind was too far gone picturing the things I wanted to do to Felipe…and how I would cover them up. She looked at me like I was a stranger, and that was the only thing that brought me back to reality. I needed to get a grip on my shit and get some answers, but all I could do was feel the anger, fueled by lies and betrayal, that was threatening to boil over. I heard the door close behind me as I stood in Pam's office. I did the only thing I could think of and threw my entire strength into a punch that connected with a loud crunch.

Shit. I was really hoping that the adrenaline that was pumping through my system would make it so I wouldn't feel any pain. No such luck. I pulled my fist back and cradled it to my chest for a few moments to let the worse of the sting fade a little. I looked up to see what my fist had done to its target. Pam was going to be pissed, I'd punched a hole right through the dry wall. At least I wouldn't be potentially facing assault charges and I had subdued my rage to the point of being able to think straight. I turned around to find Pam with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. Shit. I'd take care of it later. I focused on Felipe.

"Talk."I was hoping my voice was carrying the right amount of ice and fire that I wanted it to.

"There's nothing to talk about. This is really none of your concern." He seemed like he was completely bored by the events that were taking place, which only made me angrier.

"Like hell it isn't! You told me you were going to be in Vegas! And what the hell is my girlfriend doing in there on your fucking lap!" I momentarily wondered if Pam's office was sound proof. If not, anybody outside was getting quite the earful.

"Oh fiddle sticks. I must have messed up the dates of my trip." The fucker shrugged. "I won't be taking my trip to Las Vegas for about a month."

"And Sookie?" I growled at him.

"She will be accompanying me, of course." I was caught off guard by his answer. I just wanted to know what she had been doing on his lap…but he gave me a whole new piece of this puzzle that was making me see red. I took a few steps towards him and paused when he rose up his hand to halt me. Sure, I'd give him his last words.

"Before you start yelling and complaining, you should know that this is strictly a business arrangement. Despite how delectable the packaging is, it's only her mind that I want." He knew. He fucking knew. I could tell from his smile and his tone. He didn't mean her humor or her intelligence, he meant her gift…because he fucking knew.

"Was it Quinn?" I was much quieter now, but there was really no need to ask at all. Of course it was Quinn.

"Of course it was Quinn. I found out long ago that those who owe a debt are the most willing to please." I was pretty sure I was growling. I could feel the back of my throat vibrating. "After all, you yourself have always been a loyal employee." He patted me on the shoulder and strode over to take a seat on the couch. Pam was still leaning against the door, so I went to sit on the edge of the desk, facing Felipe.

"Why is she even doing this?" I didn't need to elaborate.

"She is settling her debt of course." Again with the patronizing tone. That, combined with those words brought the rage back to boiling point.

"She. Owes. You. No. Debt." I spat from between my clenched jaw.

"Yes, well, we three know that…" He swung his finger around to indicate me, Pam, and himself. "But she doesn't know that. How convenient for me. I guess I really have you to thank though." He brought his arms to rest on the top of the sofa and arm and smiled at us like the Cheshire cat.

"Well she's about to find out." Pam spoke up for the first time and turned to open the door when Felipe stopped her.

"I wouldn't be telling Sookie anything if I were you." Felipe had lost his care-free attitude and now sported a threatening tone.

"And why is that?" Pam asked as she turned.

"Well, if Sookie doesn't help me, I will be quite….sad. And when I'm distraught with sadness, I would hate for the police to get an anonymous tip about one of their unsolved crimes from a few years ago. What was the victim's name again…" Threadgill. "Peter Threadgill? Hmm…tell me Eric, do you know if there is a statute of limitations on murder?" Felipe cocked his head in mock uncertainty. I could do nothing but stand there and wonder what deity I had offended to find myself in my current position.

"Don't be stupid Felipe, the police only know he's missing…it wouldn't be declared a murder until they find the body." Pam said in a quiet voice while staring at the door. She turned and leaned back against it and I put my hands in my pockets and stared at the floor. Everything was coming apart, and I couldn't protect Pam, Sookie, or even myself from Felipe. I hated the thought of letting Felipe win. I didn't want to think. I wanted to die, or curl up under the covers of my bed like a bitch, or get a time machine. I couldn't do any of that though, because a small shred a thought was nagging at me.

"Why are you even bothering with this whole thing, Felipe? You're rich, you don't even need the money." I was defeated, and I'm sure you could hear it in my voice.

"Correction: I _didn't_ need the money. That is, until my cock-sucking accountant disappeared off the face of the planet three weeks ago along with the majority of my fortune!" He ranted in a chipper tone, like a crazy person, and finished with a little laugh.

"You can't deny the perfect timing of this whole thing. It's a wonderful coincidence! I lose my money, and then this beautiful woman appears who has the power to get me some back!" His hands were moving animatedly as he talked. "I think it's fate!"

He stood up and made his way over to the door. He flicked his wrist, signaling for Pam to move out of his way; which she did. When he was about to close the door behind him, I quickly took a couple large steps and caught the door with my hand to stop it. Felipe's head peaked back inside the door with a quizzical look on his face.

"Well, I figure since I'm here, I might as well do my job." I took a step to leave with him. "Besides, if you think that I'm trusting you with Sookie, you've got another thing coming, Felipe." He made a gesture with his arm to let me pass and gave me another smug smile.

"Oh, wait." He stopped me before I could pass him all the way. "In light of our new, less-amiable, working relationship, I think it best if you call me Mr. De Castro from now on."

"Really? And what will you be calling me, Mr. De Castro?" I spat out his name like a name of a particularly bad venereal disease.

"I'll still be addressing you as Eric. You see, you're still my little bitch boy even you don't want to be anymore." With that he walked on ahead of me and disappeared in the crowd of sweaty bodies on the dance floor.

I was stunned into my place. There were too many witnesses if I ran after him and killed him. I tried to talk myself out of it. Instead, I turned and kicked the door to Pam's office, which had closed behind us. The wood splintered and cracked and the door flew open to allow me a view of Pam with a tight jaw and glaring at me. Shiiiiiit.

"I'll pay for it." I said as I rubbed my hands up my face and drew them threw my hair.

"You think I give a shit about my wall or my door? I'm angry because you didn't just hit him, like I know you want to." She huffed and went to take a seat behind her desk, looking intently at her computer screen and clicking her mouse.

"I'll just give you some privacy then." I reached into the room to grab the door knob and pulled it closed. It didn't want to stay though, apparently my kick had disabled the mechanism that kept it closed. I stood and watched as the door slowly swung open. At the same pace, I watched Pam appear, looking straight at me with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Just go." She said slowly, shaking her head and showing no emotion. I walked away without another word and headed for that infuriating door next to the stage.

**A/N: So. I scrapped my plan. I have the perfect metaphor for this story (it occurred to me while writing this chapter) , so I think I'll share it.**

**This story is a like a stage-coach. It's being driven my imagination…who I think looks a lot like Mark Twain…or the KFC guy, I can never tell them apart. And I'm sitting shotgun and telling it where to go. And we're driving down this bumpy path that is the plot. But then these Indians start chasing us (because I watch old westerns with my dad and there's no point in having a stage coach without Indians chasing it). And the Indians start yelling stuff at me like:**

"**It's sunny outside…go suntan!" or, **

"**You need some new shorts…go shopping!"**

**So I do.**

**And then they start pelting these huge BLOCKS of stone at Mr. Imagination that have the word "Writer's" written all over them. And he starts slowing down. And I'm distracted, so I draw him a crummy map and tell him to follow it while I try on my new shorts and examine how my tan looks in them. But Mr. Imagination is kind of a rebel, so he's thinking about taking all these scenic routes and short cuts.**

**And then there are all the Reviews, which are screaming at me from the inside of the stage to pay attention because they're all counting on me to get them to the end of the road because they know Mr. Imagination is unreliable and talks to himself. **

**Right now, I'm trying to salvage the map that I had drawn early on. But I think Mr. Imagination kinda messed with it, and I'm not really sure how much longer this ride is going to last of where our destination is going to be. So…hang on.**

**I'm sorry if that didn't make any sense to you. I let Mr. Imagination write the explanation.**


	15. On Felipe's Lap

**A/N: I've decided that Mr. Imagination is a cruel douche bag. He has decided that this ride is taking too long. He told me last night, as I was trying very hard to sleep, that he booked a cruise when the stage coach ride is over. He has been talking incessantly since then about his other trip and what he expects to see and ports of call and the amazing buffet. I hate him. Now he has me wanting to go on this cruise with him. He told me that we could just ditch the coach, since we already know where we two are going, and let the reviews wander around in the desert. So I kinda screamed at him that there may be motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking coach, but we can't just abandon it, because all the reviews are still counting on us. So we've made a joint decision to get our noses to the grindstone (is that the expression?) and get you guys to your destination. He's being much more cooperative now that there is the promise of bigger and better things at the end of the road.**

**In case my metaphor has you stumped…**

**Translation: I have a new story idea and really want to get started on it; but I really don't think I can write both stories at the same time and do them both justice.**

**Now…let's see if I can write a chapter that is at least as long as my author's note.**

**Crap…**

**P.S. The Poll: Sam won. I don't know when I'll get though story out to you. Probably after I finish up DMH.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own CH's characters. I just kidnapped them and threw them on the back of my stage coach for a fun ride.**

Sookie POV

Sitting here, in the same position as last week, I felt like I was betraying everything that I thought I was. I had prided myself on being honest and never using my gift for the wrong reasons; but now I was cheating. I promised myself that I would never be the kind to girl that pretended to be stupid and cute so they could date rich men; but I was sitting on Felipe's lap, giggling at a joke that wasn't funny. I told myself I would never intentionally bring pain to someone I cared about; but Eric would occasionally catch my eye, and I knew I had failed. I believed that it was my responsibility to help my family in whatever way I could, but right now, I was thinking of quitting.

It was that final thought that made me sit a little straighter and resolve to follow through on the deal. The minds around me were buzzing and thinking of cards and drinks and bets. My mind was open to the whole table and I was trying to block the rest of the room, but it was getting harder to concentrate as it got later and I had more sips of my drink. Soon, I started hearing that familiar hum. It was oddly comforting to have Eric's thoughts as a constant behind all the others in the room. I looked up to smile at him, hoping he would somehow understand, and his eyes softened a little. Not much was changing at the table and I was able to think about last weekend when this whole situation had really turned upside down.

------

Last week, when Eric had stormed into the room, demanding to know what was going on, I was afraid there would be a fight. I wasn't sure what to do when they had both walked out and been gone for a good half an hour. But then, they had both returned. Felipe looked smug, like always. Eric looked like he could kill someone and kept tightening and releasing his fist.

The game continued. I did as I was supposed to and sometimes Felipe would lose a hand or fold on purpose, so as not to arouse suspicion. That night, the game ended at about six in the morning. Eric walked me to my car and kissed my cheek, but didn't say a word.

I came back that night for the second game of the weekend and everything went about the same. Pam was there when Felipe had finally won and gone home yet again, so I went into her office to talk with her.

"How was the game?" She asked without looking up from the paperwork in her hands.

"Fine. That's not really what I'm worried about though." I had relaxed onto her sofa and removed my high heels.

"Oh? What's up?" she did look up at me this time. I took a deep breath before answering.

"Why is Eric so angry? What did I do?" I was honestly dumbfounded by his behavior. I knew that he wouldn't like what I was doing, but I didn't think it would warrant this kind of treatment. Surely he understood that I had no choice?

"What do you mean?" Pam set down her papers and leaned back in her chair.

"Pam, he hasn't said a word to me since I left him sitting on that corvette. I mean, I thought we were on the same page. I really like him. And we're spending all this time together in the same room without speaking. Last night, he was looking at me like I had betrayed him somehow. Tonight, he stood behind me the entire time. I just…I don't know what happened. Doesn't he get that I have no choice but to do what Felipe tells me?" I felt crazy ranting at this woman…but it felt good to let it out.

"Hold that thought…If Eric is being a douche then I have to send a quick email." She turned from me to face the screen and clicked the mouse a few times, then wrote out a short message, and gave the mouse a final click before turning back.

"Sookie, don't let Eric's actions upset you. It's easy to mistake is self-loathing as anger directed at yourself. I know he's not angry with you, he just needs so time to adjust to the current situation." She gave me a reassuring smile. "Trust me Sookie, Eric knows better than anyone what it's like to be in Felipe's debt."

"What is that supposed to mean?" She twirled the pen in her hand for a few moments before setting it down and looking me in the eye.

_Are you listening?_

I nodded, answering her unspoken question. Her eyes suddenly got wide and a huge grin broke out on her face.

_Awesome! Eric told me he did this, but still…this is awesome. Did you ever use this as like…a one-way walkie talkie when you were little?_

I rolled my eyes and made a motion for her to hurry up.

_Oh. Sorry. Anyways, I don't think it's very safe to be talking about this out loud, I hope you don't mind._

I gave her a thumbs up to tell her I didn't mind.

_Ok. Eric can't know I told you about this, no one is supposed to know but me. The only reason I'm telling you, is because it's possible that Felipe would say some things…or think some things about Eric, and I want you to have the whole story. Felipe has known Eric since he was in his early teens. Eric's dad and Felipe were friends and had some business ties. When Eric's father died, Felipe told Eric that he could come to him if he ever needed anything. With Eric's dad gone, Sophie moved them both here to the states to be closer to her sister, my mom. Several years later, she remarries a man named Peter Threadgill. Eric had moved out by that time, but when he visited, he always got the feeling that something is wrong. _

_One night, Eric gets a call from Peter that his mom is in the hospital. He goes to visit her and she…it was bad, they weren't sure if she was going to live or not. She claimed that she had fallen down the stairs, but Eric could tell that she was lying. He knew it was Peter, anybody close to her would have known. Eric's dad had left a lot of money behind and Eric offered Peter a pretty large portion of it for him to leave and never come back…only because Sophie begged Eric to leave Peter alone. So Peter took it and disappeared._

She stopped and I couldn't understand why Eric was in Felipe's debt because of this. I had opened my mouth to ask when she held up a hand to stop me.

_He came back. Sophie started getting phone calls and letters. He broke in a few times and left stuff or took things. She was so scared. She stopped eating and couldn't sleep. Eric didn't know what to do. So he went to Felipe. Felipe has some…shady…connections. He sent some friends of his to find Peter, and they did. But Eric was the one to end it._

We sat there is silence for a good amount of time once she finished. I was trying to wrap my mind around what she was telling me. I couldn't make it add up. The Eric I knew was intimidating, yes, but not violent. He was funny and had cute stories of his and Pam's childhood.

"But he's not…" I couldn't find the word, but I knew she understood.

"No, he's not. But he protects the people he loves…fiercely."

"So, you're saying that what he did…that was an act of love?" That concept didn't seem to fit. I was struggling. I couldn't understand how violence could ever be justified.

"In a way, yes." She paused and looked up to meet my eyes with a pleading expression. "Sookie, it wasn't just Eric. I did this too. I wasn't there, but Eric knew I supported him and his actions. I understand if you can't accept any of this, but you should know. Eric isn't like Felipe, he doesn't use people or hurt them. He's only helps Felipe because he has no choice. Just, give him a chance. He really is a good man."

"I thought you hated all men."

"Eric's really good at heavy lifting. I also hear he has other useful talents…but I'll let you confirm that." She gave me a wink and I knew that all the seriousness of our previous conversation was gone. "Now go home. Get some sleep…you look like shit."

I stood up and walked up behind her. I folded my arms around her shoulders and squeezed.

"I knew you'd change your mind. I'm irresistible." Pam turned her head and placed several sloppy kisses on my cheek. I pulled away and wiped of my face to find her giggling.

"There are much more effective ways of getting me wet, Pam." I informed her as I walked out the door with my heels in hand. As I made my way out the back door I heard her yell to me:

"I'll make sure to inform my cousin!" That Pam.

-----

I hard pinch to my hip brought me back to the present. Felipe was waiting for a signal before he bet. I quickly scanned the thoughts of the other players before giving a lock of his hair a strong tug. He deserved it, my hip hurt. Eric must have seen the exchange because I heard him stifling a chuckle as a cough from our right. I smiled, glad that I could entertain him.

The night didn't get any better. Felipe was having a string of particularly bad hands and I ended up draining my drink and having to take sips from his. Vodka was not my favorite, no matter what kind of drink it was in. This, in turn, did not help my shields. Luckily, Felipe finally had a lucky streak and ended the game at three am. I almost wished that he had dragged it out so we wouldn't have to come back later today.

Felipe left almost immediately after the game was over and I went out to find Pam behind the bar with Felicia. I decided to have a seat and chat before calling Amelia to come pick me up.

"Hey, how was it tonight?" I asked them both. Felicia looked over at Pam and gave her a sign to answer for them both.

"The bachelorettes were back." I had told Pam about that whole story. I looked around the bar to tell Eric the good news, but saw that he was in the corner on his cell phone.

"Oh no. And I didn't even get to say hi!" Pam smiled at my sarcasm.

"Well this time it was a baby shower." I gave her a dubious look and she nodded. "I know, I tried to tell them that a bar was not the best place to celebrate when one of them can't drink, but it looked to me like she spent the whole night nursing a coke, so I let it go."

"How could she have had the wedding and gotten pregnant that fast? Doesn't it take a couple weeks to find out?" I didn't know a lot about pregnancy, but the timeline seemed a little short. Pam rolled her eyes.

"I highly doubt she earned the right to wear a white dress." Oh, I guess that would work.

"Your mom says 'hi'." Eric spoke to Pam as he took the seat next to me.

"Were you just talking to Pam's mom?" I asked Eric, I thought it was weird that he be talking to his aunt at three o'clock in the morning.

"Yup, my mom and his mom are on vacation in Hawaii together." Pam answered. "I talked to mom earlier and told her to call Eric later because they couldn't reach him. What did she want? Sophie seemed pretty excited about something?" Pam asked.

"Yes, she was." Eric raised his eyebrows at Pam. "Would you mind explaining why my mom just asked me twenty questions about who the blonde was that I was spooning with on my corvette? Or better yet, why she lectured me on being a gentleman and trying to control my urges when in the presence of said blonde?" Pam gave him an angelic smile before lunging from behind the bar and heading for her office…Eric close on her tail.

**A/N: Wow. I totally didn't even look at my map for that chapter, I hope it doesn't show. I originally planned for Eric's secret to be revealed in the last chapter of the story…but I decided to throw you a bone. I think we've got about two chapters to go. Next one should be pretty fun, if I do it right. I'm on the road all day tomorrow so the soonest you'll get it is Thursday night. I hope this will hold you over until then.**

**Quick Plug for my other story, Where the Wild Things Are…I'm kinda proud of it, take a look.**

**Wish me luck in surviving a 10 hr car trip with my friend. I'm planning on spending the entire time singing Heartbreaker and Barracuda at the top of our lungs…and You're So Vain…of course. Ah…gotta love girl time.**

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	16. On Eric's Lap

**A/N: I'm dragging this out. I don't know why. I thought this was going to be the last chapter, but I'm stalling. This is my baby and I'm not sure if I'm ready for it to grow up. SBB was cute, but this has been such a larger investment of time and I'm going to be sad to end it. Maybe I can pull myself together to give you two more really good chapters after this one. This chapter…just sorta happened. I didn't plan any of this originally. It started as an into the larger events of the evening…but it took on its own life. Now you have a little Eric and Sookie treat that you were NOT going to get if I stuck to my original plan. Let me know what you think.**

**I gave Mr. Imagination the new issue of Cosmo (He loves Katy Perry), so I think that should keep him entertained while I try to drive the coach the rest of the way. He was being a complete douche and started talking about trying to infect me with dysentery…I told him to shut his ugly face and stop acting like a computer game I played in 5****th**** grade just cuz we were on a trail in the desert.**

**Remind me to pack headphone our next excursion.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own SVM, I just like to pretend I do…I like make-believe.**

On one hand, it was hard to look at myself in the mirror. On the other, I didn't want to show up looking like I did my makeup while driving over railroad tracks. My vanity won that battle. I traced my eyes with the eyeliner and applied a little eye shadow and mascara. Add some blush and some lip gloss…I was ready. I stood and looked down at the pile of beautification products and tried to think of something that would let me stall a little longer before I had to leave. Maybe I could give myself a bikini wax…

"Sookie, dear… Are you ready?" I snapped my head up at the sound of Gran just outside the door. I opened it up and gave her the smile I reserved just for her.

"Yes, I think I'm ready. Did you need something before I left?" I asked as I slipped on my pumps and grabbed the edge of the sink to balance.

"Oh no, sugar. I just came to let you know that your date is here." Her smile brightened as she reached for my hand and squeezed it. I couldn't have been more confused. Tonight was Saturday, the second Saturday that I would cheating with Felipe…I didn't have a date. If I did, he wouldn't be picking me up at the house, I never had dates come to the house anymore; Gran would get too excited and eventually be disappointed.

"Who's here?" I asked as I squeezed her hand back.

"That handsome young man, Eric. I must say, he's nearly as good looking as your grandfather was, and just as charming!" She giggled a little at that. "We've been sitting talking for a few minutes, but I thought I'd come back to see what was taking so long, you can't leave them waiting _too_ long, sweetheart."

Half of my brain stopped listening when she said who it was. I was trying to figure out why he would be here. Had something gone wrong? Did Felipe cancel? I gave Gran another smile before pulling my hand from hers and walking past her into the living room, her following behind. I opened up my mind and sure enough, I felt the warm hum of his mind just before stepping into the living room to find him nestled on the couch with the hands clasped and his elbows on his knees.

"Hi." I said, getting his attention. His head snapped up to me and he gave me a little smile. I could feel Gran right behind me and I didn't want to make a scene. I mouthed "Why?" to him, hoping he would understand. He stood up to walk over to us.

_Play along. I told your grandmother I was your date. I'm going to drive you to the club, I wanted a chance to talk to you._

I gave him a small nod as he stopped right in front of Gran and me.

"Sookie, you look lovely. Are you ready?" He reached for my hand and gave it a small kiss before letting it fall, but kept it clasped in his own.

"Yes." I narrowed my eyes slightly, unsure if I should say anything else.

"Well then, Mrs. Stackhouse, it was a pleasure to meet you, but we really should be going." He gave her smile and nodded his head at her.

"Oh! You call me Adele, dear." She reached over and gave his arm a little pat.

"Of course, Adele. You have a lovely evening. I assure you that Sookie will be treated with only the utmost respect while in my care. You may rest easy knowing that I'll allow no harm to come to her." I was completely thrown off guard by the exchange between Eric and my grandmother; I barely realized that he had led us to the front door while he talked. He opened the door and motioned for me to go first. I grabbed my bag off the table and gave a quick wave to Gran before darting through the door, still confused and slightly dazed. Had Eric just charmed my Grandmother?

I played back through the last few minutes of my life. Yes, it seems as though Eric was in my house. He and _Adele_ had formed quite a friendship. By the time I came back to reality, with the intension of asking questions, I found that I had been safely buckled into the passenger seat of a corvette that was now pulling away from the curb.

"Sookie…" I turned to find Eric clutching the wheel and glaring out the windshield. "I'm sorry you're in this position with Felipe. I would change it if I could."

"So am I." I smiled at him but he didn't turn my way. "But it's not your fault, there's nothing to be sorry for."

I had hoped that my statement would relax him a little, if he knew I didn't blame him or associate him with Felipe's actions. Instead, his hold on the wheel got tighter and he clenched his jaw.

"Pam said that I should apologize to you; that I had been rude. If that's true…" He glanced over at me and continued driving. "it wasn't my intention."

I smiled a little and reached over to touch his hand. He released the wheel and held onto the hand I offered. His body relaxed some.

"Eric, there's something you should know." I didn't want there to be any secrets between us, not with all of the lies and betrayal that had already happened around here. He looked over at me to silently let me know he was listening.

"Pam told me about Peter." I was thrown against my seatbelt as Eric slammed the brakes and pulled off the road into the parking lot of a movie theater we had been passing.

"She did what!" He yelled at me.

"Jesus Christ Eric!" I rubbed at my chest where the seatbelt had caught me.

"What exactly did she say?" He demanded. I sighed before looking over at him.

"She told me about your mother and Peter and Felipe and why you owe him now." I raised my hand to cradle his cheek as he looked at me with wide eyes. He brought his hand up to cover my own, before tearing it away from his face and leaning his forehead against the steering wheel.

"Eric…I understand. I understand why you did it." I had thought really hard about what I was about to say, but I knew it was true. "I'm ok with it."

Eric peaked over and raised a skeptical eyebrow at me.

"I wasn't at first, but now I am. Honestly. I have always believed that it is the motives behind one's actions that matter the most. You were just trying to protect her. Just like I'm trying to protect Jason. I would do the same thing for Gran, or Amelia, or…" I reached over to grab his hand again. "or you."

"I could protect you from Felipe. I could turn myself in for Peter's death." He wasn't talking to me anymore. He still had his head resting on the wheel and was talking to the floor.

"Hush." I softly tried to soothe him. I could taste the hum of his thoughts as they turned desperate and angry, with a hint of remorse. I pulled on his hand until his whole body was leaning towards me and I wrapped my arms around him. He accepted it and encased me in his strong arms, nuzzling my neck and brushing his lips against the skin there. The hum got louder and consumed me until I was practically vibrating with its new affection and yearning.

"That wouldn't help anything, it would only hurt more people." He squeezed me a little tighter and I let him. Neither of us wanted to break apart and we remained silent for several minutes until I had to make my request.

"So would you please just smile at me tonight when I look at you. I need you to. I need to know that you think I'm doing the right thing." I felt his arms loosen and pull away until he could look in my face. His warm palm cupped my cheek and I leaned into it.

"I'm not sure I can do that." My heart dropped in the few seconds between his statement and the appearance of a smirk on his lips. "How am I supposed to smile when you're sitting on his lap, running your hands through his hair?"

I pretended to think for a few moments, going as far as to bite my lips and letting my eyes wander.

"You could console yourself with the knowledge that I would much rather be sitting on your lap, running my hands through your hair." I smiled up at him. Faster than I could comprehend, my seatbelt was unbuckled, pulled into his lap, and trapped between his hard chest and muscular arms. I completed the scene and wove my fingers into the hair at the back of his neck and held tight.

"That shouldn't be too hard to imagine." He smirked before leaning in for the kill. This kiss was unlike our first on the hood of his car. Now, we were both desperate for the comfort that the other could provide. So we let ourselves sink deeper. We were both hungry for the warmth and supple feeling of the other's lips and body. So we let ourselves be consumed. We were both tired and scared and lonely. So we let it all go and trusted the other to protect us from ourselves.

His lips, like the rest of him, were strong and rough…I allowed it, welcomed it even. Our tongues both fought for dominance. When he realized I wasn't going to let his win, he moved from my mouth to my jaw and neck until he reached my collarbone and made his way back up to my ear. Sucking. Kissing. Licking. Nibbling. I stretched out my neck and let my head fall back to give him more area to cover.

"We're going to be late." I was reluctant to stop his actions, but I didn't want to make Felipe mad, I just wanted to get there and get tonight over with. I felt Eric let out a long sigh against my neck before he pulled his head back up and gave me a soft kiss on the lips before helping me back over to my seat. We didn't say anything else on the rest of the way to the club, but he held my hand tightly, only letting go when he absolutely had to. Too soon, we pulled into the parking lot behind Pam's. We gave each other a nod before getting out. Eric pulled me under his arm as we made our way to the back door and inside.

As we passed by Pam's office, she saw us and called out to us.

"Well, well, well. Running a little late aren't we?" Eric and I exchanged a look before turning to join her. We each said a small "Hi" and waited for the teasing to begin.

"Oh no, Sookie! You have a very nasty looking bruise on your neck!" She stood up and came over to me, pushing my hair out of the way to study the hickey I didn't know was there. She clicked her tongue a couple times and pulled my hair forward to cover it up again. When she was done examining it, she glanced over at Eric and shook her head.

"And you! That lip gloss is all wrong! You don't want anything with that much shimmer in it, you want your eyes to be your sparkling feature!" She pulled out a tissue and wet it with her tongue, but Eric caught her arm before she could get a swipe at his face. She relinquished the tissue and he did it himself.

"Fine. Felipe told me to tell you that he was going on into the game and for you to join him whenever you got here, but he wasn't happy about it." She gave a dramatic sigh that her fun was over and went to sit behind her desk again. We had almost made it out the door before she gave us some parting words.

"Good Luck Sookie! I know it's going to take a lot of concentration to not make goo-goo eyes at Eric all night…he is quite the hunk. Have fun!" She said, giving us a little wave.

"That wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting." Eric whispered in my ear as we past the dancers.

"Yeah, maybe she's losing her touch?" That thought made me sad. Pam's witty banter was what I loved best about her.

"I doubt it." He said as we paused outside the poker room. "I think it's that we just don't care anymore, I don't think she's going to be able to scare either of us off." He gave me a smirk and leaned down for another kiss before opening the door and letting me walk in first. So it begins…again.

**A/N: Don't you wish your Mr. Imagination was hot like mine?**

**Wow. I have no idea where that came from.**

**Review.**

**Please.**

**If you do, you'll be my bff until Eric dies of natural causes.**


	17. Fucking Frustrating Fours

**A/N: Well, back to the one-a-day updates. How awesome am I? Mr. Imagination found the Red-Hot-Reads section and is currently flipping back through every Cosmo I've ever saved. While he's distracted, I'm giving you this. I hope you all like it.**

**Disclaimer: Ms. Harris owns SVM. But she lets me take her characters and play with them like I did when I had Barbies.**

I checked my watch for the fiftieth time tonight…this morning…whatever. It was three am. We had usually been finishing about this time lately, and it didn't look like we were going to be breaking our routine. It was down to Felipe and another man, whose name, I believe, was Victor. He was a new guy tonight and it seemed he was having some beginners luck.

Apparently, I'm not as lucky as Felipe thought; because of this, and the way the cards had been dealt, the chips were split about evenly between the two men. I shifted a little on Felipe's lap, settling in for a while to go. I took a sip from my drink and Felipe folded. I felt his grip on me tighten a little more. Didn't this guy understand that it wasn't my fault when he got a bad hand?

I looked up and caught Eric's eye and he gave me a little smile. He was leaning against the wall and looking amazing. My cheeks flushed a little and his smile got wider. Felipe must have noticed because he pulled me closer to his side. I did a quick check on the mind across the table.

_Fuuuuck. All I got's a pair of fours. Shiiiiiiit. Pair of fours. Pair of fours. Pair of four. _

I snuck into Felipe's head next.

_I've got a pair of kings and an Ace, what should I do?_

I wanted out of here. Felipe had a winning hand, but who knows how much longer we'd be here. I did something I hadn't done before, I hoped Felipe wouldn't mind. I leaned down a little closer to his ear to speak.

"Come on baby, bet it all. Let's get out of here." I gave him my most seductive smile and a little tug on his hair just to get my point across. He turned his head and narrowed his eyes. I nodded my head and watched him push his entire pile of chips into the center of the table.

"All in." He said to the man across the table. I snuck into Victor's mind to see what he would do.

_He's bluffing. Listening to that bimbo. Bluffing? Bluffing. All in._

"All in. Whatta ya got?" Victor pushed all his chips in to join Felipe's and gave him a cocky grin. Felipe revealed his kings and motioned for Victor to show his hand.

Victor began revealing his cards, one at a time, and I got up to leave now that my time was done. I was roughly stopped by Felipe's arm around my waist. The motion caught me off guard and I looked back to find his jaw tight and his eyes wide on the table. I looked down to what had caught his attention.

Two aces, two eights, and a nine.

No fours in sight.

I sat back down on Felipe's lap as Victor gathered his winnings and the dealer left. Quinn had obviously been needing a restroom for about an hour and high tailed it out as well. I also caught a quick thought about seeing if Felicia was still here and hitting on her.

"You mind walking me out to my car? I hear robberies have been on the rise lately." Victor addressed Eric once he had his cash.

"Uh…sure." He answered and turned towards us. "I'll be right back."

I nodded, still unable to understand what had just happened. I knew I was tired. I knew I had had a couple drinks tonight…but I didn't think I had been wrong. He had a pair of fours. He'd thought it several different times. He shouldn't have won. How did he win?

I sharp pain ricocheted around my head and I let my eyes take a long blink to focus. I was being held against the wall and Felipe's hand was at my throat, cutting the majority of my air.

"Do you think this is a game Ms. Stackhouse?" He was so close I could feel the spit from his annunciation as it hit my face. I wasn't sure if it was the loss of oxygen, but I wanted to tell him that yes, poker is a game.

"Why did you lie to me!" He thrust me against the wall a little harder to make sure he had my attention. I wrapped both my hands around the wrist that was holding me and tried to speak, only to realize I didn't have the air. I felt his grip loosen and my feet touch the ground, having not realized that they weren't before.

"ANSWER ME!" He was yelling at the top of his lungs now and I was only a few inches away. Shouldn't Eric be back by now? How long does it take to walk someone to a car?

"I don't know what happened!" I rubbed my neck and tried to clear my throat to make my voice stronger. "He was thinking that he had a pair of fours. I swear."

"You're lying! Were you working for him? Are you splitting the money? Why would you do it?"" His grip tightened again and he hit my head against the wall again.

"Pl-ease Ss-stop!" I was able to gasp to him.

"Do you know what they call that hand, Ms. Stackhouse?" He pointed to the table where Victor's cards were still laying. I shook my head as little as I was able. "It's called a Dead Man's Hand. It's the one Bill Hickock was holding when he was killed." He looked back at the cards once more before facing me again.

"I guess it's bad luck isn't it?" His other hand joined the one at my throat and both pressed down harder, fully cutting off my air. I felt my feet leave the ground again and was pretty sure that I wouldn't feel it if they ever connected again. He was yelling, but I didn't know what. His voice was getting quieter and I couldn't see him as clearly. I was clawing at his hands but he wasn't letting go. He just kept yelling. I wasn't sure if my ears had stopped working or if there just wasn't any sound to hear.

I was on fire. My chest and throat were burning. My hands were pulling and pushing and scratching but nothing was working.

Air. I needed air. I knew it on a primal level, but I knew I wasn't going to get it, so I closed my eyes so I didn't have to stare at his face.

The fire became even hotter and then faded…and then…ice. That was my next thought. The whole right side of my face was so cold, it must have been laying on ice. The burning had stopped, and I just wanted to sleep. But I opened my eyes to look at the concrete floor that was less than an inch away. Shoes. Hands. I could have imagined it all, maybe I was already gone. I closed my eyes and let the dark finally take me.

**A/N: I hate to end this here. But I haven't decided who did the saving when Sookie was too out of it to know. So we'll see if I can pull Mr. Imagination from his marathon of smut and ask him what he thinks happened. He's always so much better at figuring out these kinds of mysteries. Tip: Never play Clue with Mr. I…he'll have you believing that it was a Mr. Roboto in the wine cellar with a rubber band gun.**

**Question of the day: Who do you think done it? Both in Clue and in my story? I've got five possibilities that I'm toying with…because I like deviating from the plan and I wanna keep you guessing.**


	18. We All Have a Little Chuck Norris in Us

**A/N: I didn't make you wait too long. I was sort of nice. However, Mr. Imagination thought it would be funny to make me draw the solution out of hat. I told him that it would be weird if Gran showed up at the night club for no reason at three am and kicked the shit out of Felipe, so we talked it out. I hope you like our solution, we kind of compromised because we both wanted different things.**

**Disclaimer: Charlaine Harris owns all the characters of SVM, I just like to beat the crap out of them in my own special ways.**

Pam POV

The couch across the room was looking so very appealing right now. It was three in the morning and I was still at the god damn club. I might as well put in a full kitchen and bath in my office because it felt like l was living here now. At least it wasn't like this every night. Tonight, I was waiting for Eric to let me know that the game was over, I had been getting a little anxious on the nights when Sookie had to work for Felipe. I had never really liked Felipe, but lately he had been getting more and more volatile.

I stretched my arms up over my head and yawned. If they didn't hurry up, I was going to head on home; it had been a long week. I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus on my computer screen. I decided that my email was not going to be very effective in keeping me awake, so I switched to watching old episodes of The Office. I was about halfway through the first episode when there was a knock at my door.

"Come in!" I called out, without taking my eyes off the screen.

"Pam, you better come with me. Bring your keys." Bill was standing in my door and looking pretty anxious. I stood up and rummaged through my draw for my master set of keys.

"What's wrong? What are you doing here, I though you left an hour ago." I finally found what I was looking for and grabbed the handful of metal before going to join him.

"I left my cell phone up by my equipment. I came back to get it and I heard some yelling going on backstage. I tried to go check on it, but the door was locked." He filled me is as he led me down the hall and into the main bar area. We both heard it then. The yelling.

"You lying cunt! Did you really think you could fucking cheat me? I will fucking kill you for this!" I froze for a millisecond before we both sprinted for the door.

My hands were shaking, fumbling with keys, looking for the right one. Bill was yelling at me to hurry up, but it wasn't helping. The first key I tried wasn't working and the yelling from behind to door continued. Suddenly, I was shoved aside and landed on my ass on the steps up the stage. My first instinct was to bitch out Bill for being a douche at this inopportune time. I shut my mouth when I looked up to find that Eric was the culprit.

He pulled the keys out of the door and quickly flipped through them. Apparently he was having as much trouble as me because he growled and threw the keys to the side in frustration. He took a step back to channel his inner Chuck Norris and in a single kick, the door flew open. I reminded myself to get more reinforced doors for safety.

I was on my feet, following Eric and Bill into the poker room. When I saw the scene taking place inside, I was instantly seeing red. Felipe was holding Sookie against the wall, with both hands around her neck. She was scratching at him, but it wasn't having much effect. Eric stepped forward and ripped him away from her, hurling him across the room.

I was silently thanking all the eye-candy that had kept me going back to the gym these past couple months. I'm not sure if it was the kickboxing or the pole-dancing classes that I'd taken, but I was suddenly feeling very confident…and angry.

I stepped forward and caught Felipe before he could stumble to the ground. I held him securely by the shoulders, making sure he got a good look at my face. I smiled a little at his disoriented expression before swiftly bringing my knee up and pulling him forward, catching him right in his lower abdomen. He grunted and cradled his stomach, kneeling down to collect himself. I looked up see if Eric wanted to finish the job.

Eric was crouching in front of Sookie, who had fallen into a pile on the floor. I watched for a few moments as he checked her pulse. He seemed to be satisfied because his next motion was to push aside some of her hair, out of her face. He spoke her name a few times, but she wasn't responding. He picked her up and held her against his chest before standing to look at me.

"Take her to my office…the couch." I stepped aside so he could move past me to the door. He was almost out when he turned to look at me again.

"Felipe?" He questioned me, eyeing his curled up form and then meeting my gaze again.

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of this, just make sure Sookie's ok." I nodded my head and he looked back at the unconscious girl in his arms and walked out. I started forming my plan.

"Pam? What can I do?" I'd forgotten that Bill was even in the room. I looked up to find him standing wide-eyed by the door.

"Go help Eric with Sookie. There's a pillow and blanket in my closet that they might need. And Bill…thanks for your help." I dismissed him and watched him leave.

It was just me and Felipe now. I walked out into the club and picked up my keys off the floor before reentering the room and closing the door behind me.

"Biiiiitch." Felipe groaned from the floor. "You could have really hurt me."

Last. Fucking. Straw.

I reached down to pull his sorry ass off the floor so he was standing at the about his full height again.

"That _was_ the fucking idea." I spat at his face. "But since it didn't seem to work so well, let's try again." I brought my palm up, hitting his nose with enough forced to hear a satisfying crunch. He brought his hands up to do…whatever, and I kneed him again. Only this time, I aimed for a slightly lower target. He fell back to the floor. I lightly kicked his form so he was laying on his back and lowered myself to straddle his chest.

A little over a week ago, I had felt that the smartest purchase I had ever made was a camera phone. It seems I was mistake. It was definitely these boots. I had ordered them special online when I saw them, I thought I'd wear them for Halloween or something…you couldn't pass up an item like this. When they had arrived at my house and I'd tried them on, I decided I would be wearing them quite often. To the naked eye, they were just regular, black leather; knee high boots…but they had a secret. I reached down and rolled up my pant leg to pull the knife out of its built-it shield in the boot. I had never used the knife before, I'm not a gangster. Wearing these boots, knowing that there was a knife in them, made me feel like the most bass-ass motherfucker alive. I secretly knew that if anybody fucked with me…I'd cut 'em. It was an awesome confidence booster.

I leaned down so I was looking right in Felipe's face, only inches away and held the knife to his throat. His eyes shot open when he felt the metal touch his skin. He opened his mouth, as if he was going to say something, but I stopped him.

"No, no. No talking. I'll be doing the talking. You can just listen, and nod." I spoke very calmly and quietly, trying to calm myself as much as him. I wove my other hand into his hair and started to lightly comb through it.

"I used to respect you Felipe." I sighed at the memory. "You were good to Eric, you were there for him when his father died. You did so much for him and Sophie, it would have been harder for them both had you not been there." He was breathing heavily and his eyes were wide.

"That's the only reason you're going to be walking out of here tonight." I made sure to look his eyes as I said this, to make him understand what I was saying. He made a sound like he was trying to say something but I cut him off again and pushed the knife a little harder on his flesh.

"I'm not done." I took a deep breath to consider how I wanted to approach this.

"You have been fucking with my family for long enough Felipe. I understand that Eric owed you a debt, but that doesn't excuse your actions. You just got dangerously close to hurting someone that I myself, as well as Eric, care about. That can't happen." I shook my head like I would if talking to a kindergartener. "So you're going to leave." This time I nodded.

I sat up a little to go through his pockets. I pulled out his keys , wallet, and cell phone and set them all on the floor by his head. I went back to my previous position.

"You're going to leave Felipe. I don't care where you go, as long as it is far away. You're not going to call, write, email, or ever come back into any of our lives. Eric, he doesn't owe you a debt anymore does he?" He shook his head.

"In fact, any debts that were owed to you…Quinn, people like that…they don't owe you anymore." He nodded. I picked up his key ring so he could see it. I set about talking off all the keys except for the ones that went to his car.

"You're going to drive away from here tonight and not look back. You're not going to stop at your house, or anywhere else before you go." I put the extra keys in my pocket. I picked up his wallet and let him watch as I pulled all of his credit cards out and left only his cash and driver's license. I picked up the cell phone and waved it in front of his face before adding it to my pocket.

"You have enough cash for a few tanks of gas, I suggest you drive until you're broke. Then you may want to perform sexual favors so you have money to get a little further away from me. You're not going to call anyone. You're going to disappear. We know the same people Felipe, and if I hear from any of them that you have contacted them, I will hunt you down and _kill you_." I whispered the last part to him.

"You do understand, don't you Felipe? I'll kill you. You tried to hurt the people I love. I'm using a lot of restraint to not do it right now, so I suggest you follow my instructions." I took a shaky breath to prove my point. "If you do anything to hurt my family or friends ever again, I won't try to use any restraint. I won't be a pussy about it either. I won't hire any muscle to do the job, I will kill you myself. I will wipe you off the face of this earth, just like a parasite like you deserves. Do. You. Under. Stand?" I gave him a little tight smile and raised my eyebrows for him to challenge me. He didn't. He nodded.

"Good-bye Felipe." I whispered before I stood up. I didn't look back as I walked out the door and left it open behind me. I went to check on Sookie.

**A/N: How was it? You like? You no like? Let me know. Was I not brutal enough? I doubt many of you would think I was too brutal, but if you do, let me know.**

**I hope you like the executive decision I made with Pam. She's my favorite and I wanted to let her have her way with Felipe. I hope I didn't disappoint those of you who were hoping for Eric to be the big hero.**

**Mr. Imagination totally wanted Bill to kick some major ass in this chapter…I guess douches stick together? I told him that wouldn't accomplish anything because Bill was NOT going to end up with Sookie in the end…I'm not that crazy.**

**He told me that it was totes uncreative to have Eric bust in, save Sookie, and kill Felipe. I agreed, but still wanted to see Eric kick in a door. I'm pretty sure that Mr. Imagination is illiterate and only looks at Cosmo for the steamy pictures, so I told him that Sam showed up to apologize for the bad terms of the break up and he ended up saving her. Shhh…don't tell…it's our secret.**


	19. Big Brother Becomes a Man

**A/N: I'm sorry! It took forever and I know it and I'm sorry! Hopefully you don't hate me too much and will still enjoy this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Until I change my name to Charlaine Harris and buy out the rights to this series, I don't own it.**

Apparently I was dead.

I had always wondered what it would feel like in the afterlife (I had never doubted there would be one). So far I wasn't being disappointed. I was warm and comfortable. I could hear God's beautiful voice calling my name, but it seemed so far away. I wondered if my parents and my grandfather would be waiting for me, maybe even some relatives that went so far back I had never heard of them. God was getting louder and I couldn't fight the need to open my eyes and see what was around me.

Slowly, my eyes cracked and finally opened the whole way. I smiled as heaven appeared, a world of the most beautiful blue I had ever seen. I was about to call out to God when my eyes focused a little more and my blue world turned into two blue eyes. I knew those eyes.

"Eric?" I croaked, reaching up to feel my soar through.

"Hey, I was starting to get worried about you. How do you feel?" The lightness in his eyes got slightly darker when he mentioned my physical state. He was squatted down next to the sofa so his eyes were on the same level as mine.

"A little sore, but I'm ok." My voice was hoarse, but I figured that couldn't be helped after what Felipe had done. And yes, I remembered everything now that I wasn't dead anymore.

"Here." Bill stepped out from behind Eric and handed me a glass of water. I sat up on the sofa and pushed away the blanket that had been covering me. I took the glass and gave him a little smile, I couldn't understand why he was here, but he wasn't being a douche, so I let it pass.

"What happened? With Felipe?" Eric asked me after a few moments. I pulled the water away from my lips and pushed my hair out of my face before starting. I told him about the cards and how I had somehow been mistaken when I'd read Victor's mind. I was just getting through talking about Felipe's reaction and his monologue when I became completely distracted.

Pam was literally moon-walking into the room from the hallway. I can't be certain but I think I heard her making little noises to accompany her motions. She made it all the way to her desk before doing a little spin and sitting on the edge of her desk with a satisfied grin on her face.

"Why are you so chipper?" I asked her. She looked up, startled that someone had interrupted her musing before answering.

"I think I just made Felipe piss himself. I was spectacular." She had that far off look in here eye and I hated to interrupt her excitement, but Eric had no qualms.

"Pam, what did you do?" He asked. His tone suggested he was half interested and half wary for the possible answer.

"I was perfect. I swear I was channeling The Joker from the Dark Night with a little bit of Lara Croft and Nancy Botwin thrown in. Oh my god. I should be an actress…or an assassin. Either way…I was fucking brilliant!" She pumped her fists in the air a couple times before taking a calming breath and walking around to take a seat in her chair. Eric narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're wearing your BAMF boots aren't you?" He nodded a little as he said this, sure of his deduction.

"I sure am. Finally got some good use out these babies. Needless to say, you guys don't owe him anything and we won't be hearing from Felipe ever again." She looked affectionately at the boots that she had propped up on the desk, Eric just rolled his eyes and turned back to me.

"Are you sure you're ok? We can take you to the hospital." His brow was furrowed again. He was honestly worried about me, it was sweet. I leaned forward and hugged him to me and whispered in his ear.

"I'm fine, honest. Stop worrying." I gave his cheek a little kiss before pulling away to address the whole room. "Thank you so much. All of you. I really didn't think I was going to get out of there."

Eric squeezed my hand and Pam grinned at me. Bill seemed a little uncomfortable in the room, but he nodded at me regardless.

"It was nothing, really. All in a day's work." Pam shrugged. "Take deliveries, get people drunk, stop a bar fight, save Sookie, threaten Felipe…just another Saturday." She waved her hand to dismiss it.

"But you really should be getting home, Sookie. I'd hate to have your grandmother wake up to find you haven't returned from your date. You wouldn't want to tarnish Eric's reputation." She finished. I see we have the old Pam back, how I missed her. She was right, too.

"That's probably a good idea." I said standing up. I was astounded that my whole body was exhausted and sore when it had only been my throat that had been grabbed.

"I'll drive you." Eric said, raising from his position next to the couch. He wrapped his arm around my waist and led me out to the parking lot after I said a quick 'goodbye' and another 'thank you' to Bill and Pam. He opened the door for me and helped me in before closing it and going over to his side and sliding in. He started the car and I smiled a little at the purr of the engine. I was pretty sure I was in love with this car…and quite fond of its owner.

We drove in silence. I wasn't surprised by the silence, it had been a long night, but I was surprised at how uncomfortable it felt. Eric sat rigid in his seat and his knuckles were white as they gripped the steering wheel. He quietly pulled up to the curb in front of my dark house and cut the engine.

"Eric," I started hesitantly, "is everything…"

"I'm so sorry, Sookie." He cut me off. Crap, it had been a long night and I had no idea what he was apologizing for.

"What are you…" I began, but he cut me off again.

"I shouldn't have left you with Felipe. I should have stayed, I should have known he would be angry about losing, I wasn't thinking. I should have…" It was my turn to interrupt him.

"Eric, don't be ridiculous. This isn't your fault." He looked like he was going to start again so I brought my hand up to cover his mouth. "Let me finish. It's not your fault. Of the two of us in this car, you're not the mind reader. If anyone is to blame, it's me. I should have known what he was going to do and I didn't." Eric kissed my hand before pulling it away.

"No. You can't take all the responsibility like that." I laughed at his statement.

"Ok, but neither can you. The important thing is that I didn't die. No harm, no foul." I smiled at him. "Now if you don't mind, it's been a long night." I pulled away and let my hand find the door handle.

"Alright. If you need anything, you'll call me right?" I gave him a little nod before opening the door and getting out. He sat there and waited and I giggled a little. Did he really think that my luck was that bad, that I would be attacked twice in one night? I walked up to the door and unlocked it, giving him a little wave before I closed it behind me. I listened closely for the engine to start, which it did, several minutes later, and pulled away.

Amelia was asleep on the sofa, drooling on some bridal magazine. I wrote a quick note and stuck the note to her forehead, telling her I was home and not to worry. I stripped down from my dress and took a quick shower. I knew I wouldn't be able to rest until I washed all traces of Felipe from my skin. After that, sleep came very easily.

-------

"Sookie, wake up." Amelia was pushing on my shoulder and I unsuccessfully tried to knock her hand away.

"Go away. I'm sleeping in today." I groaned into my pillow.

"Obviously. You've succeeded, it's noon. Now I'm waking you up." I could tell that Amelia was frustrated.

"Ten more minutes." I realized how much I sounded like a five year old and internally cringed, but then snuggled deeper into my blanket. I heard Amelia huff behind me.

"Jason's here. He wants to talk to you. He says it's important." He always says that.

"I believe him." That, on the other hand, was not a common occurrence. I rolled over and looked at Amelia who seemed completely serious. She gasped and clutched her own neck.

"As soon as you're done with him, you're going to tell me exactly what happened last night and who the hell I need to have Tray beat up." She glared at me to prove her seriousness and left for me to change. I got out of bed and pulled on a bra and jeans with the t-shirt I slept in. I followed Amelia's guiding motions to the kitchen to find my brother staring at his cup of coffee. Jason never drank coffee. This was weird.

"Jason, what's going on?" He looked up at me and smile before noticing my neck, which I now knew was badly bruised, and stood up to examine it better.

"Who the fuck did this? I'll kill him. Was it Eric? Gran said you left with him last night!" He was yelling now and put my hands up to silence him.

"It's nothing, it's been taken care of. And no, it wasn't Eric. Why are you here Jason?" I really didn't want to get into the discussion about last night, I knew I would be repeating it to Amelia soon enough. Jason didn't seem to like my avoidance, but I put my hands on my hips and silently asked him to challenge me…it was Gran's tactic and he knew well enough to not push it. He took his seat and I sat down across from him.

"I came to give you this." He pushed a paper bag and an envelope towards me. I smile a little at the drama of it all, he couldn't just tell me what it was, I had to unwrap it like a Christmas present. I slipped my finger under the seal of the envelope and swept it across. There papers inside were folded in thirds and it took me a moment to understand what it was.

"Thank you." I gave my brother a warm smile and reached out to grab his hand and give it a little squeeze.

"I'm just makin' good on my promise. The house is yours; it's too big for me anyway." He was talking down to the table and acting shy, I just wanted to hug him. I resisted the urge and reached for the bag instead. I unrolled the top and peaked inside. My smile vanished into shock and suspicion at the pile of cash inside.

"Jason?" I hoped he understood the entire question that I was too confused to ask.

"It should be about as much as was in your savings before you gave it up." He peaked up at me and gave a sheepish grin.

"How?" I knew better than to just accept the fact that my brother was giving me a large pile of cash when he himself rarely had a twenty in his wallet.

"It's a long story." He sighed as he relaxed back into his chair.

"Then I suggest you get started." I folded my arms and settled back into my chair as well.

"Well…" He rubbed the back of his neck, deciding where to start. "Claudine came over to pay a visit on Thursday. Soon as I open the door, she starts yellin' at me for gettin' in so much trouble and pullin' you in with me. Says I was the worst brother alive and that if Felipe hurt you, she'd make sure the same'd happen to me. She told me what Felipe was makin' you do to pay off my debt." He paused and looked troubled. "She scares me, Sook. Could you…could you tell her to just send her brother next time or somethin'?" I nodded my head and made a mental note to buy Claudine some flowers. Jason continued:

"Anyways, I got to thinkin' and I decided I couldn't just let you take all this on yourself. But I figured that Felipe would never let you go, knowin' what he does about your…gift. I figured he'd find a way to keep using you. I feel really bad about this Sookie. I shouldn't have let you step up for me like that, it was my own mess. So I told a friend of mine about the poker club, and I told him that all he had to do to win was to think about having a bad hand when he really had a good hand." He gave me a smug smile, he was obviously very proud of his plan. If I wasn't in shock, I would have been impressed too.

"That way, you would tell Felipe that he was going to win, but he would really lose. Then he would let you out of your deal, because you weren't right all the time! He came by this morning and gave me my share so I guess it worked. Did Felipe let you out of the deal?" His eyes were bright with excitement and pride as he looked at me for confirmation of his plan's success.

Part of my brain wanted to slap him and tell him he was idiot for being so naïve. I wanted to yell at him for not even thinking of including me in this plan. I hated that he had tried to take control of a situation that was beyond his control. I wanted to tell him to take his money and get out, that I didn't want to be around anyone this careless.

A much larger portion of my brain felt quite the opposite. I knew my brother. I knew that he would occasionally disappear with some woman for a long weekend, or occasionally forget my birthday, or spend his money of some stupid thing for his truck. But I really did believe that one's actions were much less important that the motives behind them; and right now, Jason was sitting in front of me and trying. He had tried to save me and pay me back and protect me from his mistakes. He was proud that he was finally being the big brother he knew he should be. He had just handed me the money I had given up to save him. He was giving me the house that I loved and desperately wanted. All he was asking was if his carefully constructed plan had gone well. Well, I wasn't going to ruin this for him.

"Yeah. He let me go Jason, he said the debt was paid." His smile grew wider and I went over to hug him properly. "I love you Jason, but if you ever do anything else as stupid as what you did with Ginger and Felipe…you're on your own." I spoke into his hair as he squeezed me back. The moment was only slightly ruined when his cell phone rang and he let me go.

He listened for a few seconds before hanging up and explaining that someone somewhere had gotten some new TV and was inviting everyone over to watch some game. I kissed his cheek goodbye, and he promised to come over for dinner some night to visit with us some more, before he ran out the door. That was Jason, and I loved him.

I took a seat down at the table and fingered the edges of the stacks of money. Out of my peripherals, I saw Amelia walk into the room and stop in her tracks. I smiled a little and wondered how long the money would distract her before I had to tell her about last night.

A/N: I hate Mr. Imaginiation. He got wind of the Eric n' Sooks summer of '69 contest and hasn't shut up since. He's been parading around in bell bottoms and flipping me peace signs. I just want to smack him. He tried to talk me into using my story idea (that I mentioned a few chapter back) for the contest since it fit pretty well. In an attempt to placate him, I wrote 10 pages of shit that I'm pretty sure will never be published. It made me feel like a useless slob and postponed this very update. Blame Mr. I…not me.

I'm going to wrap this story up now. Only one more chapter to go…which suits me because it'll be a round number. I like that: an even 20 chapters. I bet that sound just as good to everyone else as it does me, because I'm sure I'm not the only one getting bored. Anywhozzies…

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	20. Spilled Beans

**A/N: This is the final chapter. It's over. I know, we're all so sad. This is my first fic of a substantial length and it's a very bittersweet feeling to see it end. If you don't like the ending, I'm sorry. I guess I should have gone with my first instinct and had them all dress up in outrageous disco costumes and sing Waterloo to each other a la **_**Mamma Mia**_**. I'm truly sorry if this was the ending you were looking for, better luck next time. Please take the time to let me know what you thought of this story, it's the only reward I get for my hours of work and nerves when I cast my baby out into the cold cruel world.**

**P.S. I had a lot of fun looking at a website that listed sex euphemisms for this chapter, I almost went back and edited to see if I could add more. You can thank me in a review.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Southern Vampire Mystery Series.**

……**..**

Pam POV

"Are you ladies enjoying your evening?" I asked as I walked up to the table and gave Sookie my biggest smile. She rolled her eyes and put her head down in mock shame. She was no actress though, I knew she was having a fun time. I wondered if she would loosen up when Eric and she finally played bash the beaver. They had been staying very tame since the whole Felipe incident and I couldn't figure it out. I pondered while all the other women laughed and a few hugged me while Amelia thanked me profusely (yet again) for the half-priced drinks for her party. I was technically a guest, but I felt more comfortable to pop in and out and only stay for an occasional drink; after all, I really didn't know any of the other women.

Things had quickly gone back to normal when Felipe had left. It was only momentarily disturbed when Sookie had been obviously distraught for a few days. She admitted to me that she had told her brother that he could continue to live in her farm house if he took care of the upkeep. I understood how difficult it was for her to make that decision; she was essentially acknowledging the fact that she wouldn't be having a family any time soon, and thus did not need the house. I truly felt bad for the girl. So, when Sookie had approached me about having her friend's bachelorette party at the club, I was only too happy to help. I gave them discounted drinks and overlooked some behavior that I would normally put a stop to. I had even offered to whore out Eric to be their stripper, but Sookie had quickly nixed that. I could not understand why. My sadness over it had disappeared when I saw that they would all be wearing the customary dick necklaces and feathery boas. I had secretly brought out my trusty camera phone again.

I stayed for a few more minutes to chat and catch a funny story before finding an excuse to leave. I walked around to the back of the bar and sent the picture of Sookie in her penis gear to Eric, knowing it would terrify him. He didn't reply, but I knew that he was busy.

In an attempt to entertain himself while Sookie was basking in the wild freedom of manlessness, he was dismantling the poker tables and getting everything ready to move out. The idea of a free backstage area was inspiring me and I was thinking about having some actual bands play. I made a mental note to start asking around about local bands.

Before I could get too comfortable, trouble walked in the door. Admittedly, it was not the worst case scenario. I had been a little worried the past couple weeks that Felipe would come strolling in with some of his goons and try to seek some revenge. While this would be, by far, my least favorite situation, Quinn didn't have much better potential. He looked around a little before going to knock on the door next to the stage. After a few moments, Eric opened up and after a few words, let him inside. I kept an eye on the door while helping Felicia and chatting up a few regulars. Quinn wasn't in there ten minutes before emerging with a smile on his face. If I didn't know any better, I'd say Eric had just given him a happy ending. I shuddered at that mental picture as he strolled right up to the bar.

"I hear I owe you a 'thank you'." He said, keeping that stupid smile.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. But hypothetically, assuming that I did kick some serious and/or douche- bag ass, thus eliminating your debt to said ass, then I would accept your gratitude if you were to give it." He looked lost for a few moments before chuckling.

"Ok, well…thank you Pam." He held up the beer I had just given him in toast.

"We need another round, Pam." Sookie had walked up to the bar, realizing at the last possible second that Quinn was sitting there.

"Oh, um, hi Quinn." Obviously she still associated his presence with Felipe's and wasn't sure what to make of him being here. She looked to me for her answer and I gave her little nod, I was pretty sure he was harmless.

"Hey, Sookie. I should probably tell you now that I'm sorry for what Felipe did to you, I was just trying to protect myself and my family. It wasn't personal." He honestly looked regretful for his actions and for a moment I almost forgave him. Sookie took her time to respond, only making him more nervous.

"If there's anything I can understand, it's why you did it, but that doesn't mean we're going to be friends any time soon. I could have been hurt really bad. The only reason I'm not is because of Pam and Eric." She gave me a quick smile, which I returned.

"I guess I'd be wasting my breath to ask you out then? Seeing as you're still hung up on the tiny little fact that I betrayed your most precious secret to a violent sociopath? Talk about overreacting." He smiled and rolled his eyes to make his sarcasm evident.

"Yeah, not going to happen. Even if that wasn't the case, I'm sort of seeing Eric now." My smile grew as I pretended to wipe down the counter.

"I guess I shouldn't really be surprised by that, I had a feeling you two would get together." He took a swig of his beer.

"Oh yeah? Are you psychic now?" She playfully shoved at his arm.

"No, he just seems like the kind of guy that always gets exactly what he wants. I knew from that day at your brother's house that he wanted you, why else would he pay Jason's debt? It didn't really strike me as being out of the kindness of his heart." He shrugged as if nothing just happened. I stopped scrubbing the bar and glared at him with my jaw tight, silently telling him to shut his fucking mouth. I don't think he saw me.

"What do you mean 'he paid Jason's debt'?" All of the Sookie's playfulness was gone. Quinn grinned and slowly turned to give her his full attention.

"Do you really think that Felipe would have been satisfied to take your weekly payments to settle Jason's debt?" Her face answered his question.

"Sookie, Felipe was not that understanding. He would have found someone to…inspire…Jason to find the money. He was very much into instant gratification. Eric and I both knew this when we left your brother's that day. When we went back to Felipe's, Eric didn't even present your offer to him; he just pulled out his own checkbook and gave Felipe the full amount." He patted her on the shoulder as if she were a child. I let my head fall to the bar to restrain myself from punching the big dumb animal that was sitting at my bar. I knew for a fact that Eric did not want Sookie to know this story.

"Oh well, it's in the past. Listen, it's been nice catching up, and I honestly do appreciate your help," he nodded towards me as he stood, "but I really should be getting back to Nevada if there's nothing keeping me here. I wish you the best of luck with your lives." And he was gone.

Sookie was just standing there with wide eyes and a slack jaw. I could see the wheels in her brain turning and I was starting to worry if she had blow some kind of fuse in her freaky telepathic brain. In addition to that, I was honestly curious as to what her reaction would be. She could swoon and melt when she thought of how strangely romantic Eric was, or she could run to him and offer her body to him in repayment, or…

"Son of a bitch." She could go with the anger angle… always a classic.

"He meant well." I said, but she was in her own little world, oblivious to me.

"Son of a bitch." This time it had a little more feeling to it.

"Sneaky, self-absorbed prick." She flopped into Quinn's seat and finished his beer for him.

"He was only trying to help." I was pretty sure that she had snapped herself back into this dimension.

"Bastard! I was working for Felipe for no fucking reason at all! But did he tell me? No! And on top of that, I do not need a man to take care of me! I have worked hard to be independent! I don't need him to come in on his sporty red steed and brandish his checkbook like some Viking broadsword and save me from the big bad monster. Bastard!" She dropped her head onto her folded arms and let her hair shield her from the word. I leaned in so I didn't have to yell over the noise of the bar.

"Sookie, he had limited options. He was trying to do the best he could in a bad situation. He never meant for you to find out, he was just going to take the money you meant for Felipe until you had paid him back and everyone would be even. He doesn't expect you to roll over and let someone take care of you, you would never let anything be that convenient." She turned her head to glare at me and I smiled.

"He did it because he cares about you and he didn't want anything bad to happen to you or your family. You're the one always talking about the importance of motives. Think of it that way and then decide how to act."

She slowly sat up and gave me a smile. I could see it in her eyes that the swooning was definitely replacing the anger. I nodded at her and her eyes darkened a little and she got a very determined look on her face. Ok, it seems she'll be going for door number two after all. She winked before standing and fighting her way through the bumping and grinding crowd. I stood on my tip-toes to watch as she knocked at the door next to the stage. A few moments later, Eric opened it and his brows furrowed at seeing her. He looked as if he was going to ask something but never got the chance. She flung herself at him, knocking them both back into the room as the door flew shut.

I went back to the bachelorettes with a smile on my face.

Sookie's friends left and the bar closed up without any major problems. I was shutting down my computer when Sookie and Eric strode in with dumb smiles on their faces, very similar to Quinn's earlier. But something told me these two weren't talking about Felipe back there.

"Hey, I guess everyone went home already? They weren't too much trouble were they?" Sookie stayed close to Eric's chest as she talked and allowed him to keep his arms around her.

"Yeah, no problems. I think everyone was satisfied with the way the night turned out." She rolled her eyes at me.

"Well, then, I should probably be getting home too, but I'll see you tomorrow night." She waved to me and gave Eric a peck before skipping out the door. Eric strutted over to the couch and stretched himself out on it with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"I can feel that there is something you want to say, so just get it over with." I tried to sound distant as I filed some paperwork in my drawers and locked them up.

"It's just that…I know you wanted to keep those poker tables in case you ever needed them for something…but I'm not sure you really want them anymore." He leered at me. I sighed, I had been hoping for a Monte Carlo themed Halloween party.

"Keep them." I grabbed my bag and started walking out, he followed.

"I was hoping you'd say that, they have sentimental value to me now." He pulled me into his side for a half-hearted hug and I pushed him away. I decided not to say some smart-ass comment and kill his buzz. Instead I got in my car and followed his obnoxious corvette out of the parking lot and contemplated calling Sookie's friend Claudine. She kind of reminded me of a little petit four and I couldn't wait to get a taste. I giggled at the thought of Sookie's reaction and decided I was definitely going to call her.

Yes, everything was back to normal.

**A/N: I would like to thank everyone that has reviewed and said something nice about my story, if it wasn't for you, I have no doubts that I would have given up on it about half-way through. I'm going to keep writing, but I have yet to decide what. I just hope that some of you guys stick with me on whatever adventure I decide to take next.**

**Yes, Mr. Imagination is playing some dirty games with me right now and is being relentless about the Eric n' Sooks summer of '69 contest. He has thrown his fucking gauntlet by claiming I don't have the balls (or any of the other important parts needed) to write a lemon. I told him that when I do write it…he can suck the very part of me that he doesn't think I have. He then helpfully points out that totally dropped the ball on this one and didn't give you guys any hot poker-table lemons, so go easy on me for it.**

**Until then, thanks again for all the love!**

**REVIEW!**


	21. Sam's Epilogue Monologue

**A/N: DO YOUR EYES DECIEVE YOU? NO. IT'S A NEW CHAPTER OF DMH! OMG..AND…AND…IT'S THE SAM'S POV I PROMISED! Take a moment to absorb…then…enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own. But I do dream.**

SAM POV

If I was being honest with myself, this wasn't an accident at all. Six months was hard enough and I couldn't resist anymore. Sure, I really did need to go to the hardware store. But did I really need it today? A Sunday? No. Probably not. But here I was.

And no, it had not slipped my mind that the hardware store was right across the street from the cafe that Sookie would be at. She was there every Sunday. Did that mean I was stalking her? No. I was just in need of WD-40, and maybe a little curious. Curious was a safe description for what I was. Wasn't it normal to be curious about your ex? I thought so. And if that curiosity somehow turned into her seeing me, coming over to say hello, and a subsequent elopement and happy life…so be it.

It was my curiosity that had led me to act minimally interested when asking Jason how Sookie was doing. It was the only glimpse into her life that I had allowed myself in this whole time since the breakup. If I was being honest, again, I would admit that it was probably because of my conversation with Jason this Friday that had spurred my need to fix that squeaky hinge.

………….

I had been finishing closing up the bar after a normal Friday night crowd when Jason had barged through the doors and rushed right up to the counter, drumming his hands impatiently. I didn't get a chance to tell him we were closed before he started right in.

"Was Dawn workin' tonight?" His eyes were darting around the bar, presumably for any trace that she had been here. I nodded my head in affirmative.

"She leave already?" His eyes snapped to mine for confirmation of what he should already know. After all, her car wouldn't have been in the parking lot.

"Yeah, Jason. Her shift ended twenty minutes ago, and the bar is closed." I stared pointedly at him, hoping he would get the picture.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But did she leave with anyone?" He was leaning on the counter now, obviously desperate for this information. I dropped the rag I had been using to wipe up and glared at him; it had been a long night and I was so very close to being able to leave.

"I don't know Jason! Why don't you just call her and ask her yourself?" Apparently my anger wasn't registering with him. Instead of leaving, he slumped into the nearest barstool.

"But that's the problem! I left my phone at her house on Wednesday and I need it back!" He threw his arms up into the air in frustration before running them through his hair and finally threading his fingers behind his neck. I leaned down to rest my head in my hands that were leaning on the bar. I took a deep breath before looking back to my current annoyance.

"Jason, it's been two days. Why are you just now trying to get it back?" I swear his momma must have dropped this boy on his head.

"Well I was distracted. There was this party that a sorority was throwin' at the college, and I don't wanna get into details but I was not thinkin' about my phone!" He slumped forward and his head hit the counter with a loud thud that I would swear made a hollow sound.

"Jason, it's been two days, a few more hours is not going to matter. Just go by Dawn's house in the afternoon. Now get out of my bar!"

"I can't wait that long! Sookie was supposed to call me in the morning. She had an appointment with the doctor and was supposed to call me in the morning to tell me what happened!" My head snapped up at this information.

"Doctor? Is Sookie ok? Can't you just call the house yourself to find out if she's ok?" I had stopped my cleaning and was now very interested in the turn this conversation had taken.

"Nah, can't call Gran's anymore. Sook's livin' with that Eric guy now and I cannot remember that new number. I think there's a couple fours in it…maybe sixes…." I was pretty sure that at this point I looked like a deer caught in from on Jason's headlights but I couldn't seem to snap myself out of it. Sook was living with someone else? She'd always been angry whenever I had suggested we move in together. I hadn't even known she was seeing anyone. It had only been a couple months…she was just supposed to take a break and realize that she was supposed to be with me. She was always supposed to come back. My mind was racing through all the conversation's I'd had with Jason since the break up, searching for clues that she'd been dating. I quickly snapped out of it to the conversation at hand.

"Wait, doctor? You didn't say if she was ok. Is she? Is she sick?" Jason had obviously still been thinking about the phone number and looked confused for a moment before a nearly visible light bulb when on over his head.

"Oh, no. Lady doctor. I wasn't supposed to tell no one but she's thinkin there's a bun in the oven. I'm gonna be Uncle Jason; can you believe it?" He chuckled to himself for a moment as I tried to keep my breathing even and absorb this information.

"2337! That's it!" Jason jumped out of his chair and pumped his fist in the air at his success. "Thanks Sam! I'll just call Sookie in the morning! See you tomorrow night!" He scrambled out of the bar without another word and left me standing there in disbelief.

I had really lost her.

……………

So here I was, peeking through a barrel of brooms and a dirty window to watch the girl that I loved as she ate lunch with her best friends. They were all making wild hand gestures and laughing and smiling as they passed around a tiny piece of paper. Pointing and "awing" and breaking my heart a little more.

I wasn't stupid. I knew what the paper was. I knew why Sookie was glowing. I knew what Jason had, no doubt, been told on the phone yesterday morning. And as I stood there watching, I knew that the smile that appeared on Sookie's face when a red corvette pulled up would never be for me. I knew that the man getting out must be "Eric", and I knew I couldn't compete.

I pulled the WD-40 off the shelf and made my way to the register. As I left the store, I spared a quick glance at Eric carefully placing Sookie in the passenger seat and heading for his own. I turned in the opposite direction towards my truck and began walking down the street.

Maybe I would give Tanya a call. She'd come in the bar the other night and left her number.

Maybe I could take a road trip and visit my mother, see how she was doing.

Then again, maybe I could go to that new bar Sookie's working at. I bet she'd like to see an old friend (because we were friends, before the dating). Besides, it's always good to check out the competition, which I had heard was doing real well after adding live entertainment…

Maybe not.

The (Real) End

* * *

**A/N:**

**Me: "WHAT? Pregnant? Really? Is that all you got? You couldn't have found a more original way of making this a happy ending?!"**

**Mr. I: "We could have given Sam an impromptu blow-job…I think he would have been pretty happy about that."**

**Me: "I swear you have the mind of a 14 year old boy. Why do I talk to you? Why would I let you control my writing?"**

**Mr. I: "Because you'd be nothing without me. Now fix me a sandwich while I explain."**

_**Caity dutifully sets about making a sandwich with leftover Christmas turkey…he can just deal with it. **_

**Mr. I: "Yes, Sookie's pregnant. Your readers really waited all those months for a crappy, cliché ending. What a bunch of saps!"**

**Me: "HEY! They have been really patient and loyal from the beginning! And I'm sure they're going to live up to their awesomeness and review this new chapter! Because if everyone who has an alert for this story, reviews, we'll have 400! Wouldn't that be amazing?" Make it happen.**

**Mr. I: "Whatever. My point is this, despite my name, there's only so much I can do to make this story awesome. If I had my way, Sookie and Eric would have moved to Sweden, had 12 blonde children, and started a folk singing group called 'The Von Northman Family Singers' that lived a double life as international spies. But no, someone, aka YOU, said it was improbable!" *sigh* "My genius is being wasted…and what the hell is in this crappy sandwich!?"**

…**review, please.**

…**srsly…if I get 90 new, original reviews, I'll (maybe) write the ending that Mr. I envisioned.**


End file.
